


The Woman out of time

by Eclipsephoenix



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Hunting, Multi, Novelization, Smut, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 11:06:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10920555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclipsephoenix/pseuds/Eclipsephoenix
Summary: Based on a lose vertion of my playthough of Fallout 4. Ashley Winter was a student, engieneer, solder, wife and now survivor looking for the one thing she has left in this world. Her son. From Pre-war times to the Commoernweath she will find him. But she will soon learn some things arn't so easy.





	1. Chapter 1 Pre war life

Ok so I've checked stuff on the timeline so if I have got anything wrong or out of place please let me know. Also because of some of my other projects this will be updated like, every two months or so, I don't know. And if anyone knows of any female sole survivor walkthrough vids please point me to them and transcripts for Fallout 4.

Chapter 1 Pre-war life.

May 21st 2068

Ashley, or Ash, as she was nicknamed walked down the corridor of Boston law school as she read her law book in hand. Unlike many other college girls who wanted to just flirt she didn't she wanted to get her law degree done before she started to flirt. But then again she was a bit of a grease monkey on the side of her law. It was fun and allowed her to focus on her creative side of life and ignore the trouble around her. She was 18 after all.

Sighing she looked outside at her home city of Boston, it looked almost majestic with the white buildings and skyline. But she had always wondered how long it would last. Closing her book, she continued on as a Mr. Handy flew passed her with its arms close to its enormous orb of a body. Life always seemed calm and tranquil. Her life was becoming one of these American dream sort of stories. Born to a humble family, good childhood and just rose to where she was. Life seemed to have paid her for something but what she didn't know.

But like many things, her life wasn't perfect. Her father was a drunk half the time and her mother divorced him like she should do but that left Ashley in a bit of a state but she pulled herself up by getting a job at a garage at 16 and worked for it to this day. As she continued down the corridor the speaker came on.

"All students please return home. There currently is a demonstration in the city. Police are currently engaged with violent protests over the food rationing program." the voice said. "I repeat..." but Ashley didn't listen as she turned on her heel and walked for the stairs.

She knew about the riots, with years of consumption led to shortages of every major resource. Food, fuel, and other materials. She found it hard to believe that some people could be so greedy but then again being the richest nation in the world how people could not? As she walked she could see several of her fellow students moving fast across the campus grounds with flags and board messages. It seemed that they were going to join the riot as well. Young people could be so dumb at times and she knew it.

But then again if people weren't so dumb then she wouldn't be in law. Oh the irony of nature at times had always interested her. As she walked into the main lobby of the college she noticed some students putting up posters on the walls and lockers. Interested she walked up to the poster and looked at it. What she saw she wasn't impressed by.

The poster had a man in it with slanted eyes, yellow skin and wearing a traditional Chinese outfit for men. In his hands was a type-93 assault rifle, the main weapon of the People's Liberation army. Behind the man was the Chinese flag with the devil on it almost laughing maniacally. On the left however was a man in red white and blue power armour holding the American flag with people backing him up. Below both of them were the words 'Fight the Red menace, America needs you!' Ash just gave a disappointed sigh before walking off.

"More propaganda." she muttered to herself.

Ever since the Chinese had invaded Anchorage the American government and the more conservative patriots had demanded at people join the army to fight the 'Red Menace' as it were. In order to do this, they had to stir people's emotions up by using propaganda, well very racist propaganda. To say that she was unimpressed would be an understatement, she had friends who came from China and they were not how the propaganda mills said they were.

She just sighed as she looked at her watch, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon, her shift at the Red rocket garage didn't start until 4:00. shrugging with a smile on her face she walked over to a nearby bus stop to catch a ride to work. After all better to get some more hours on and more money.

OOOOO

"Ugh... yep here's the problem." a man in a mechanic jumpsuit called out as he came up from a car's hood. "Someone wired up the radiator all wrong. It increased the pressure of the coolant."

A man in his early thirties walked over and looked at the engine as well before he chuckled a bit.

"Man sometimes I wonder if tech even works." he said. "Right Joe?"

"David, I'm surprised at you, if tech did work properly then I would be out of the job." Joe said making the two laugh out loud.

David handed out several dollars in Joe's hand who took it and opened the door for his customer. David climbed in and put the key in the ignition and turned it but the car gave a whine. Frowning Joe walked over to the engine to have a look at it.

"Err, Joe?" David asked, but Joe just shrugged, unsure on what was going wrong.

"Got a problem, boys?" called a female voice making the two of them to see a slightly messy haired teen dressed in a green dress approaching them.

While it was expected that most women to be cleanly dressed and had clean hair this one didn't. Instead she had bruises up and down her arms with her hair all messy and ragged. Her dress was also very muddy and had tears practically everywhere. She was panting as if she had run all the way to the place. And seeing that she had her shoes off, it wasn't much of a surprise.

"Ashley?" Joe asked. "What happened to you?"

"Well, no buses and a moving riot are a great combination." she said with a big grin on her face walking up to the two men. "Anyway due to the riots, college is closed for the safety of the students. So rather spend the next few hours at home I figured that here would be a better use of my time."

David was still looking at how badly beaten up Ashley was as Joe gave a chuckle at Ashley's comment.

"True enough, ok grab your jumpsuit and give me a hand here, please." he said.

Ash nodded and walked into the garage itself.

"When did you get a babe like that on your crew?" David asked.

"Well her mother is an old friend of mine, and she has a good mind and even better hands. She's great worker, maybe even better than all the people on my crew." Joe said proudly as he stroked his grey stubble.

"But she should be out, having fun with her friends and boyfriends. She should be in a place like this." David said becoming confused.

Joe eyed him a bit. David was a regular, yes, but he and Ashley had never met due to their different time tables. Unlike some other people, David was old fashioned. Polite, but he believed that women should be in the house waiting for the husband to come back. But that might be simplifying it. While the government and companies had given previously all male jobs to women not many of them took it up whether through propaganda, way they were brought up or something else no one could tell. But some people believed that these rights should be removed. While David had this mindset, Joe knew him well and he didn't bite the hand who was helping which was a very good sign.

"Well, in the years I have known her, Ashley is one of those girls who doesn't take no for an answer. If she wants to find something, she will, if she wants something done, she will do it. Hell, I think she could do just about anything... well except avoid the draft." he said in a somber tone.

The door to the staff room opened and Ashley came out dressed in the Red rocket jumpsuit. Her hair was only slightly messy, the way she liked it and she had also cleaned up some of the muck off her face. After exiting she turned around and locked the door.

"A woman like that should not fight in the war." he said as Ash came up to the car and looked under the hood.

"Ok, I see the problem, there's a leak with the radiator." she said with Joe coming round to look.

Looking where she was he could see the rusted part of the radiator. "How did I miss that?" he asked.

"In this light? Very easily. The rust is due to imperfect material and water of the radiator. But the problem is getting a new one." she said making Joe sigh in defeat.  
"What's up?" David asked.

"Your radiator's busted. It's leaking coolant and we need to replace it." Joe said in an apologetic tone.

"But there's some good news." Ash spoke up. "Your engine was made by RobCo, and their radiators are relatively inexpensive and high-quality. I can get one and have it installed by tomorrow at around 6 in the evening."

"How much would that be?"

"Er, the radiator would run you around 250, plus 40 for labour." Ash muttered as she came up from the engine. "You'd also have to leave the car here while we fix it."

David just sighed as he got out of the car and closed the door. "Okay." he said taking his wallet out but Ash moved over to him and pushed it down making him look at him.

"You can pay us when the job is done." she said with a smile making him smile and put his wallet away.

OOOOO a few hours later.

Ash was in the staff room having her break and reading the newest edition of Grognak the Barbarian. This was labelled as Grognak and the Doom temple. It was one where Grognak had to find the princess of the local kingdom and bring her home. But he soon stumbles on a cult who sacrifices people to their god of death. It kind of resembled a film that was planned but never got released for some reason.

"Hi folks, this is Boston radio coming to you live, today." the Radio cried out making her wince a bit.

"Sorry, it's getting dull out here!" Joe yelled as he turned the radio down.

"It's okay!" Ash called out shaking her head as she continued reading the comic and taking a sip of Nuka cola.

"With the Chinese increasing their operations in Anchorage, it seems our boys in green are going to have a bit of problem and soon. However, with the new power armoured units the mobile armoured corps are fielding, they are currently holding the PLA back. More news on the war as it comes. In other news Tec reported the completion of Vault 92 and have started the registering processes for all resident candidates with the goal of keeping the spirit of our great nation alive." the Reporter said.

Ash just shook her head, she understood the concept of the Vault's but never believed that the war would lead to all out atomic war. But then again people can do stupid stuff.

OOOOO August 21st 2072

Ashley awoke slowly before falling on her bed once again. Ugh, she had one hell of a night at the graduation party last night. Her mind was so fuzzy she couldn't remember everything she did. But then she remembered a cute blond with lovely red lips, soft tongue... soft tongue. She woke with a start and looked around her apartment as part of the incident came flooding back to her. Two of her friends Kelly and Max were together and got a little passionate when they kissed. Through her fuzzy memories she remembered going into a bedroom with the two of them and... and... her cheeks became bright red as she remembered what happened.

"Damn, ok, no more drinking." she said as she reached over to her bedside table and pulled out a pack of tablets and took one. "Still never kissed a girl, or had a three some before, huh, I think I liked it."

She didn't want to get pregnant just yet. Groaning, she stood slowly as the sound of the mail met her ears. She could get it in a moment as she walked over to the kitchen and turned the kettle on and got some strong coffee out and put several spoonfuls in a cup she had out. The kettle then turned off allowing her to pour the liquid into the cup and set it down after moment. She then took a quick swig of the strong drink allowing her to wake up even more. Pulling back the curtains she had to cover her eyes as sunlight flowed into her apartment.

The heat of the sun flowed onto her skin allowing her to wake even more. She stretched her arms out as she turned and walked over to her door and picked up her mail and going through it.

"Junk, junk, bullcrap, bullshit." she said going through her mail until she found a brown envelope with the state seal on it, addressed to her.

Smiling and drooping the others she began to open the letter. She had been waiting for this as she had applied to be a trainee lawyer but she had to go through the state for it. Getting it opened she then took the letter out and began to read it.

A/N looked up at old American draft letters for this part, but I decided to cut it down.

SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM  
ORDER TO REPORT FOR INDUCTION

The President of the United States, John Leoman

To Ashley Winter

You are hereby ordered to report for induction into the ARMED FORCES of the UNITED STATES, and to report at Bunker hill on 25/872 at 12:00 noon for forwarding to an ARMED FORCES INDUCTION STATION.

Just reading the first part of the letter Ashley just fell to her knees. She had hoped that she would be lucky enough to avoid the draft but this, right now seemed like the world was against her. The war had finally called her to do her part whether she liked it or not.

OOOOO April 12th 2073 US base, Anchorage, Alaska.

"INCOMING!" a soldier yelled as a mortar round managed to hit the wall of the base.

It exploded taking out a large section off the wall allowing Chinese forces to close in and enter the base. But as they entered the base Military grade Protectrons and powered armoured troopers moved up to the breach and held off the PLA forces. Inside one of the hangers in a winter military engineer jumpsuit Ash was working on one of the Siege sentry bots that was recently delivered. The laser Gatling gun on it was on the fritz. But with what was going on outside, it was more than a little hard to work, not to mention that once she had finished on this she needed to get to work on an X-10 Sherman tank.

Just then, Chinese soldiers found the entrance to the hanger. The yelling in Chinese alerted her to their presence, making her run to an APC for cover as they began to fire on anyone they could see. Through the gunfire, Ash looked for something to defend herself with. Looking over to the wall, she found metal ammunition boxes with the R91 assault rifle next to it. Despite being an engineer, she was still trained in basic combat. Gritting her teeth, she dived for the rifle, picking it up. Taking out the magazine, she checked it to see if it was loaded, and it was. The 30 rounds of 5.56 shined in the cold air making the 23-year-old smirk as she loaded it and pulled the charging handle.

Taking at least 5 more magazines and sliding them into her pockets, she moved back up to the APC. The gunfire outside and in the hangar had stopped making her worry what was happening the three who were firing at the entrance moved into the hanger weapons up. She needed to be smart about this, and careful. Shouldering the weapon, she moved around the back of the APC as the three PLA troopers walked by the vehicle. Moving around the other side so that she was facing their backs she aimed at the middle one before pulling the trigger.

The 5.56 rounds flew through the air and hit the three PLA troopers in the back. Ash held the trigger back until the magazine was empty. The intruders then fell face first onto the concrete. Lowering the weapon, she took in a deep breath before more noise could be heard outside.

"Shit!" she muttered as she ran back to the Sentry bot and ran its activation sequence.

Knowing it would only do so much it would allow her more time to do something but just then…

"HEY, ASH, UP HERE!" a male voice yelled.

Looking up she could see a short brown-haired man waving to her. Even from the distance she was at she could tell who it was. The man's name was Nate Leonard. Unlike her, he was already part of the army by the time she was in. A good soldier and, well, a good-looking man. The two had become quite good friends here, but since the base was compromised they needed to get out. Looking around she saw a set of steps leading to where Nate was. She ran over to it and climbed up to the railings he was on. As she made it several Chinese troopers were then met by heavy fire of the Sentry bot.

"I thought the crystals were out of alignment." she muttered.

"I just got word from HQ, they're going to bomb the base from orbit. We have to move." Nate said before pointing to a set of jeeps by the entrance to the hanger. "We can use one of these to get out of here."

"Yeah, just wait a minute." Ash said as she watched the Bot take out several more troopers before going outside and firing again. "Okay, let's go."

The two the moved fast down the stairs as fast as they could before their boots hit the concrete. They then ran over to the Jeeps with Nate getting onto the drier side while Ashley got onto the laser Gatling gun on the back. The vehicle revved into action as he began to drive both of them out of the hanger and base as rocket from orbit came down and destroyed the base. Looking around Ash could see several American troops who had made it out during the Chinese attack and began to regroup. She made it out alive but for how long would that last for.

OOOOO 31st May 2074 US RAF base Anchorage

Ashley stood in front of her new power armour. The air was cold even through her under armour. The suit was open and waited for her to enter. She looked down at the letter she had received almost 2 weeks ago.

Dear Miss Winter,

We thank you for your patriotism in the past with the 34th engineers. In recognition for your service and by the command of the Leader of the Anchorage Campaign General Chase you have been promoted to Lieutenant of squad 6 of the 5th mobile armoured corps. Due to your engineering experience with the T-45d power armour you have been slated as a Shock trooper. This is a great honour for you to be at the front line for our mighty nation.

Good luck and god bless you.

She scrunched up the letter before looking at the power armour and stepped right foot first then left foot. Once in the armour closed around her until it locked in. She had been in power armour before as she needed to run diagnostics and test the systems. But now she was no longer an engineer, but a soldier; the war must have been going badly if the government was doing this. But it made sense, it takes ages to train someone to use power armour so using someone who already knows how to use it made things easier.

She walked over to a crate where a rectangular CZ53 minigun was and picked it up. It was light with her armour thanks to the support frame. She sighed as she didn't want to kill. The first time she did kill, she was almost unresponsive to all her fellow engineers for at least a day. Looking down at the gun she just didn't know what to feel anymore. She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear another powered armoured trooper coming up behind her. A hand found its way onto her shoulder, making her turn to face Nate, who stood there with a grin. He couldn't see it behind her helmet, be she was smiling back. 

OOOOO 24th Jan 2075

It was a long road to getting here. Ashley looked up and down in the mirror one final time, only to see not the girl that she knew, but a woman far lovelier.

"Ma'am, the groom is waiting for you." An attendant chimed in.

That was her cue to walk down the aisle in her wedding gown, marking the beginning of her new life with a man who she knew she could trust. A man she knew would care for her in return. A man she loved.

It was an unexpected surprise, but her uncle volunteered to walk her down the aisle. While her father was almost never there for her, she new she could count on her uncle. On the way to the altar, he was going through a multitude of emotions, but mostly pride, joy, and relief in knowing that she'd be marrying a man who would care for her the way her father never could.

"Thank you uncle." A teary-eyed Ash said to her sniffling uncle. It was the first time she said it, as he handed his niece to the groom.

"Thank you, if only your father could see you now." was all he could manage though his stifled sobs. Even if it was just a few short metres down the aisle of a church, he was there for his niece for one last time.

Facing each other, Nathan and Ashley could only marvel at each other's radiance. Ash spent months memorizing her vows, picking the right dress, venue, and guests; but all of that was forgotten as she stood before the altar. A little embarrassed (and slightly panicked), she noticed the look on Nate's face, because he was also in the same predicament! It didn't matter, because they loved each other, and such trivialities could easily be forgiven.

The pastor began, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…"

OOOOO October 23rd Sanctuary hill's 2077

Ashley walked into the bathroom where Nate was. He said something before she moved up next to him.

"You're going to knock'em dead at the Veteran's hall tonight, hon." she said.

"Ya think?" he asked.

"Absolutely, now get ready and stop hogging the mirror."

"Right." he muttered as he rubbed his face before Ash moved him slightly.

"Hey, my turn, big guy." she said taking his place and just applied a bit of black and blue eyeliner before walking away leaving him in the bathroom.

She continued on and into the living room. The TV reporter was talking but she didn't pay much attention as her Mr. Handy got her attention.

"Ah! Good morning, mum. Your coffee, 173.5 degrees Fahrenheit, brewed to perfection." he said.

"Thanks, Codsworth." she said taking the kettle from him

"Of course, mum." he said as she poured herself some coffee.

As she picked it up Nate walked in and round to the side door where his newspaper was, picked it up and started to read it. She smiled as she picked up the Grognak comic on the side and just chuckled at the title. 'Grognak the barbarian and the cave of the bat baby's.' a far cry from the older ones but still interesting. Just then her baby began to cry drawing Codsworth away from his dishes.

"Ah, sounds like someone made a stinky." he said. "I shall attend to young Shaun."

That didn't make her smile in the slightest. She wanted to take care of her son but she and Nate bought Codsworth to lighten the load they both had.

"Ya know, I was skeptical at first but I think Codsworth is good with Shaun." Nate said. "But I still think we need to take him in to be serviced soon."

"I second that." she said as she opened the comic.

"And now a brief look at the weather, this weekend is unseasonably warm with temperatures at a high of 53." the news reporter said. "Then we are looking at a cold front coming from Canada, making it crisp and dry for next week's Halloween festivities. It would also appear that our troop overseas are experiencing unusual weather as well. On the island of Mambajao the nights are cold..."

the sound of the news reader was drowned by the sound of the doorbell making both of them look up.

"Ugh, it's that salesman, don't know why he keeps on bothering you." Nate said as Ashley walked over to the door and opened it.

"Good morning Vault-Tec calling he said giving a bow.

Ashley had set herself, Nate and Shaun up in one of the Vaults but they needed so much stuff it was getting annoying. And while the two didn't think that atomic annihilation would come it was better safe than sorry.

"Morning," she said not in the mood for his upbeat attitude.

"Yes, it is, sorry to do this but I've been trying to get you for days. I assure you it's the matter of utmost urgency." he said making his voice go up and down trying to stir her emotions.

"Well, I'm here now."

"Yes, you are, now I won't be taking up much of your time, time being a... a precious commodity. I'm here today to tell you that because of your family's service to our country you have been pre-selected for entrance into the local Vault. Vault 111." he said trying to make it sound dramatic.

"But there's room for my family right?" Ashley asked.

"Of course, of course. Minus your robot naturally. In fact, you already cleared for entrance. It's just a matter of verifying some information. Don't want there to be any hold ups, in the unforeseen event of err total atomic annihilation. Won't take but a moment. "

"Ok. What do you need?"

While Ash and the salesman talked Nate walked up and sat down on the sofa hoping to listen to both his wife and the news. It took around a moment until they were done.

"Wonderful! That's... everything..." he said as he backed away. "Just going to walk this over to the Vault. Congratulations for being prepared for the fut-" but he didn't have a chance to finish as Ash closed the door on him.

"Thanks again." she said sarcastically.

"Hey it's piece of mind, that's worth a little paperwork right?" Nate asked.

Ash smiled got down on one knee and reached over him with her arms. "For you and Shaun? No price is too high." she said kissing him on the cheek making him snigger a bit.

"Ha good answer." he simply said.

"Well I do have my moment's." she shot back.

The two of them leaned in to kiss but just then the unmistakable sound of Shaun crying met their ears. Codsworth then came into the room.

"Miss Ashley, Shaun has been changed but he absolutely refuses to calm down. I think he needs some of that 'maternal affection' you seem to be so good at." he said.

"You heard Codsworth," Nate said with a smile. "Go on I'll be there in a minute."

Ash just gave an amused chuckle before standing and walked down the short corridor to Shaun's room. Her baby boy was in a blue crib, hard to believe that he was just over a year old. She walked over to him and got down to one knee and rubbed his little belly.

"How are the two most important people in my life doing?" Nate asked from the doorway getting Ashley's attention. "Hey I fixed the mobile, give it a spin."

Liking that she did give it a spin making her son gurgle in delight.

"That's my boy. Being good to his mother like me, well most of the time anyway." he said closing the door and walking up to the two. "Listen Ash, after breakfast I thought we could go to the park. Weather should hold up."

"Sure sounds good." Ash said with a smile, thinking that it might be like that night in the park a year ago, after their wedding.

"Sir, mum! You should come and see this!" Codsworth nearly yelled.

"Codsworth what's wrong?" Nate asked but Ashley felt something inside her gut.

"Grab Shaun I'll go see." she said opening the door and walking into the living room.

"Followed by... yes, followed by flashes. Blinding flashes. Sound of explosions... we're… we're trying to get confirmation..." the newsman said.

Just then Nate walked in the Shaun in his arms. "What did he say?"

Ash couldn't answer as she just stared at the TV.

"But it seems that we have lost contact with our affiliate stations. We do have...coming in… confirmed reports. I repeat confirmed reports of nuclear detonations sin New York and Pennsylvania, my god..." the TV then just got cut.

"We... we have to get to the Vault! NOW!" Ash yelled.

"I got Shaun, let's move!" Nate said.

Almost immediately the two of them kicked down their door and ran out onto the street. Sirens were going off left and right as the two of them ran down the street of Sanctuary hills. Military and police were already out in force.

"People of Sanctuary hills if you are registered evacuate to Vault 111 immediately." someone on the megaphone said.

Despite the people running both Ash and Nate could see a soldier directing people to the Vault they both followed his direction. He kept yelling for people to go down a dirt road. The two tried to say close as more people began to panic as they crossed a bridge. As they ran across it she could hear someone falling into the water but she couldn't worry about that right now as they both ran up a small hill to where a Vault-Tec billboard was. A metal gate was up ahead with people in a line but most of them not getting in. As they got closer, the unmistakable sound of a minigun whirred into life and the sounds of someone pulling the trigger on it.

The people screamed and a few of them ran away but the rest stayed as they got closer to the line. The line moved as some people got in. Ash could then see a body cut in two by 5mm rounds. Looking up she could then see three soldiers, one with combat armour on and a clipboard in hand while at either side of him where two green powered armour shock troopers. As they got to earshot a man was arguing with the armoured soldier.

"That ridiculous I AM VAULT-TEC!" he said.

"You're not on the list, you don't go in." she soldier said.

"I'm going in and you cannot stop me." he said but before he could do anything a minigun whirred into life.

"Sir!" the powered armour soldier warned.

The man in the brown trench-coat then threw his hands up. "OH okay, okay." he said back down before running way. As he did Ash recognized him as that Vault-Tec salesman who came to her house earlier.

"I'M REPORTING THIS!" he yelled.

"Next." the soldier said as Ash and Nate walked up.

"We need to get in, we're on the list." Ash said.

The soldier looked down the list. "Infant, male, female... last name?"

"Winter." she said.

"Ok go in, god help us all." he said moving to the side allowing the three to enter.

"You two FOLLOW ME!" yelled a Vault-Tec security guard.

He with the two moved up the hill even more to the top.

"What about all those people?" Ash called out.

"We're doing all we can." he said as a Vertibird came in for a landing.

"Step on the platform in the center!" another security guard yelled.

Ashley and Nate stood on the platform labelled 111. The two stood together almost hugging each other as one of the Vault security guards whet to a hut to the left side of the platform.

"Almost there, we're going to be ok." Ash said before meeting her husband in the eye. "I love you, both of you."

"We love you too." Nate said.

Just then a flash made the two cover their eyes. At that moment, both of them realized, this was no test the end had finally come. The flash transformed into a mushroom cloud making everyone look in a sense of awe but the guards couldn't have the luxury.

"NOW, NOW! SEND IT DOWN NOW!" yelled one of them as the lift began to move down.

"Hold on!" Ash yelled as the lift began to move down.

As it did the shock-wave came in fast and the lift was slightly slow but as it came over the hill the top of their heads were in line with where the lift was and the shock-wave went right over their heads. Ash looked up as the door closed above them seeing the last speck of light for the next 10 years. Or so she would think.

It took around two minutes to reach the bottom. Many people on the list were just relieved that they had made it to safety. As they still moved two people were waiting. Next to them was a small scaffold to an open vault door. The lift then stopped and a gridded door in front of them.

"Everyone please step off the elevator." said the security guard. "and proceed up the stairs in an orderly fashion."

"No need to worry folks, we'll get everyone situated in your new home. Vault 111; a better life underground." said the other man who Ash could only assume was the leader.

"So we just-" asked one of the survivors on the lift.

"Yes, just up the stairs." said the Security guard.

With that people started to get off the lift and get onto the scaffold to the door. But as Ash and Nate got off one of the men who came off ran to the wall near the scaffold and threw up while his wife came over to comfort him. The leader also came over as well.

"I cannot believe it, if we waited a minute later we'd all be..." he tried to say but the leader stopped him.

"No, no. Don't get caught up thinking that. You're safe now."

Ash just ignored them at that point as she and her husband walked up the scaffold and through the door. They were greeted by powerful floodlights to the entrance which seemed to be like a checkpoint of some kind with a biometric scanner. This was odd but then again she shouldn't be so surprised it's likely they needed to check the health of all residents. As the three of them moved a mechanical voice came over the speaker.

"Vault-Tec is here for you. All new Vault residents, please proceed in an orderly fashion. Welcome home." it said

'Welcome home'. Ashley thought as the three of them walked through the checkpoint with the man saying something she didn't catch. 'That's something I never thought of hearing from a Vault.'

"Good." said the man who was operating the biometric scanner.

"Please step over to the table and pick up a suit." the man in front of them said.

The three of them then followed a line around to where a dark skinned woman was handing out blue jumpsuits with the number's 111 on. Nate and Ash took one each before looking at the woman.

"What now?" Ash asked.

"Just follow the doctor here, he'll show you where to go." she said.

"Alright, you three, follow me." said a man in white.

"See, this is our new home..." Nate said to Shaun in his arms as the three followed the doctor down the hall.

"Hon you're going to love it here. This is one of our most advanced facilities... not that the others aren't great, mind you..." the doctor said as they walked passed a guard and three people talking about what had happened top-side.

It made Ash wonder though, did America launch first? Or the Chinese? Maybe the Europeans or someone else. She shook her head ridding herself of those thought's. She and her family were here now... that's all that matters.

"How... how long will we be down here?" Nate asked as they approached a room with white boxes inside.

"We'll be going through all that in orientation. Just a few medical items we have to get through first." he said as they moved into a large room where at least thirty people were waiting in pods for something.

The doctor led them down to the end of the room before turning to them.

"Please put on your jumpsuits and set into the decontamination chamber." he said.

Ash and Nate then went behind their respective pods and undressed before getting their jumpsuits on. While Nate didn't like it as much it didn't bother his wife who had worn similar outfits when she was working in the army and Red rocket. It fit them both like a glove and was quite comfortable for the both of them.

"Just step inside please." he said.

She looked at the decontamination chamber as her some began to cry a bit. She turned to him gave him a kiss before climbing into her pod. She watched as Nate and Shaun's pod began to close as well as her own.

"The pod will decontaminate and depressurize you before we move before we move deeper into the Vault. Just relax." the doctor said as he came up to her pod before walking away.

"Time for a whole new life." she muttered.

"Resident secured." a robotic voice then said. "Occupant vitals normal, Procedure complete in.."

But as it said that, it began to get cold and she became drowsy. She looked over to Nate who hand his eyes on their son.

"5..."

Mist began to fill the pod and something sounded like ice cracking.

"4…

Her eyes became heavy she couldn't hold them open anymore.

"3..."

The voice became harder to hear as her vision became black.

"2..."

It was cold, so cold she needed to sleep.

"1..."

That was the last thing she had ever heard before succumbing to sleep. She slept a dreamless sleep for what seemed like moments before something began to happen. Waking up her vision was foggy but she could hear clearly.

"Manual override engaged." the voice said. "Cryogenic stasis suspended."

"What? Cryogenic stasis?" she muttered as her vision became clearer.

The inside of her pod looked like her freezer back home which ice flakes all along the glass in front of her. Her breathing became regulated, as she looked around.

"Cryogenic suspension? What kind of sick joke is this?" she said as someone came into sight who looked like a woman.

"This is the one here." she said as another person came round.

Unlike the woman who was dressed in what looked like a hazmat suit, this one was bald with a leather suit and make-shift armour. Both of them moved up to it, but the bald man kept his distance.

"Open it." he ordered.

Ash then slammed her fist on the glass of her pod trying to get their attention but either they didn't hear her or they didn't care about her. The woman then pulled the lever on the console next to the pod. Alarms then sounded as Nate's pod began to open. The door then moved and he leaned forward a bit as Shaun began to cry.

"*cough* is it over? Are we ok?" he asked.

"Almost." the man said. "Every thing's going to be fine."

As he said that the woman moved up to the pod reaching out for Shaun.

"Come now, give me the baby." she said.

Ashley's eyes widened in almost horror as she began to slam on the door even more.

"No, don't take him!" she said but once again they ignored her.

"No wait. No... I got him." Nate said as Shaun began to cry even more.

"Let the boy go!" the man said as he pointed a pistol at Nate.

"No..." Ash whispered. "NO! DON'T HURT THEM!" she cried out.

"I'm only going to tell you once." the man continued as the woman held onto Shaun.

The two then began to struggle over him violently.

"I'M NOT GIVING YOU SHAUN!" Nate declared.

A shot then rang out Making Shaun cry even more. Ash just stopped slamming her hands against the door as tears flowed down her face. Nate slumped in his pod... dead with blood coming down from a hole was. The woman took a hold of Shaun and just looked at the man who tried to keep the baby from her.

"Goddamn it! Get the kid out of here. Let's go." the man said before coming Ashley's pod.

The woman moved away fast as the man looked into her pod. She could see a scar down the left side of his face and a small bard on.

"Least we still have the backup." he said walking away as Nate's pod closed.

"Cryogenic sequence initialized." the robotic voice said and a moment later Ashley was frozen once again.

Suddenly her vision became clear but it felt like she couldn't breathe. Coughing she looked around to see she was still in her pod. The slammed against the door as an alarm went off.

"Failure in the cryogenic array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately." the robotic voice said as her door opened.

She fell out her pod onto her hands and knees finally getting air into her lungs. Looking up at her husband's pod she moved to the controls next to it and pulled the lever. Making it open.

"Come on, come on." she said as the pod opened and she stood fully.

Once opened she had hoped that what she saw was a dream but it wasn't. The ice all over his body told her that he was not getting back up. Wiping her tears away she looked at him and got up onto his pod before leaning in to kiss him one last time.

"I'll find who did this, and make them pay. And I'll get Shaun back." she said as she removed his ring and climbed off the pod.

Looking down the row of pods she had expected other people to come out but no one did. Moving to the next one down she pulled the lever but nothing happened.

"Failure in cryopod release override." the robotic voice said.

Not wanting to wait around as the place was way too cold Ashley moved down the pods looking at each one. No one was moving something must have happened for this to happen but what? She had no idea. Walking up the small flight of stairs she came down on the door opened allowing her to move down to the end of the corridor where someone had left a few tools laying there. But as she approached the door in front of her didn't open.

"Ugh, broken." she said before looking to the side where there was another door.

She approached it and it opened, figuring that it was better than standing around she walked down flight of stairs that lead to a corridor where she could hear electrical discharge. There was a door at the far end of the hall. Looking up the stairs for a moment she walked over to the door which opened for her. The corridor then curved which she followed. The hall then led her to what looked like a refectory, feeling a little hungry she walked up to the place. But as she entered something large jumped at her.

She ducked fast and looked to where the creature landed. It was a few feet in front of her. She moved up fast and crushed it with her heel killing it. Taking a deep breath, she then removed her foot from the creature to get a good look it at. It seemed to be a cockroach but a big one.

"Giant roaches? What the hell?" she muttered.

Looking at the refectory she noticed that the tables had degraded due to use. While she was asleep some people must have been awake. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that there was more than likely no food in there. Sighing she turned to the generator room door and pressed a button on the side opening it up. Almost instantly a giant roach jumped up at her. On instinct she punched it hard causing it to slam into the floor before she stepped on it like the other one.

Moving around one of the generators two ore then jumped at her. This time was she was knocked over by one causing her to hit a few crates behind her. Grunting she found a hammer next to where she landed picking it up one of the roaches jumped again at her. Gritting her teeth, she swung the hammer at the roach slamming the iron end of the hammer on the roach causing it to split in half. As for the other one she slammed her heel onto the roach's head making it run around like a headless chicken. She then stood before and took a deep breath. She was scared but she had taught herself to get used to it.

Moving over to the consoles she noticed a skeleton in a jumpsuit.

"What happened? Is anyone alive?" she asked taking a moment to look at the skeleton.

Sighing she stepped over him and walked over to the door which opened allowing her to continue. She walked up a flight of stairs before she was attacked again by a roach. Thankfully it missed her and landed on the foot of the stairs. She threw the hammer at it which crushed it she smiled with a satisfactory smile as she continued on through the door at the top. She entered an office-sized room with a skeleton on the floor next to a chair and behind a desk with a computer on. But what caught her eye was a 10mm pistol with three mags next to it. Smiling, she walked over to it and picked it up. Pulling the slide back she could see a 10mm round in the chamber making her smile. She didn't like melee weapons at all. Firearms were more her style, she picked up the three mags and pocketed them. The door in front of the desk was closed and she needed to get through it. Assuming that it was like the other she walked over it and pressed the side button on it but a bleeping sound.

"Shit, terminal controlled." she muttered turning back to the computer.

Walking back over to it, she noticed a storage section with the door already open. Moving over it, she had found another 10mm pistol with two more mags. She took them both ammo was important and if anyone was alive outside she could sell it. A cryo box then caught her eyes making her smile but it was locked baking her lose said smile.

"I'm coming back for you." she said.

Turning around she then walked over to the computer an activated it. It turned on and she went down all the way to the open door option. The door open allowing her to go through it. The hall curved but as she entered the sound of roaches met her ears she looked to see 4 roaches further down the hall. Taking a deep breath, she raised her pistol and aimed down the sights. She got the first one and she fired, it hit killing the cockroach. But that alerted them to her presence. Aiming again she fire at the nearest one. But the shot missed, she fired again but this time it hit and killed the other roach leaving only two left.

The final two then jump up at her. Now she had a bigger target taking aim one again she shot one of them out of the air. As for the other it landed on her arm, before it could do anything Ashley slammed the bug against the wall crushing it. It fell off her arm, breathing in she then followed the corridor down and round until she came to the door it opened leading her to the airlock where she, Nate and Shaun came in first. It seemed only like this morning she came here but now things had change.

As she walked in she only spotted at least 2 roaches. Taking aim, she fired two rounds at the closest one, killing it before doing the same for the other killing it as well. She then walked over to the yellow console. But as she did she noticed a Pip Boy on the floor. She got down and picked it up and turned it over. Turing it to the right side she placed it on her left wrist before locking it on and turning it on. It activated but dust covered the screen. She rubbed her thumb on the screen taking some of the dust off. It ran through it's programs for a moment before settling on her health status. Looking to the console there was a plug required, turning the Pip Boy she noticed a white plug/ taking the plug out she then placed it into the socket on the console and a plastic cover opened. After placing the plug back then hit the red button. As she did the alarms went off and lights dimmed.

She looked to the vault door as an arm slid into a hole and pulled it out of where it was. It then moved allowing floodlights to blind her and causing her to back up. The light died down a bit and the ram she came in on fell.

"Time to go." she said walking over to the ramp and walking across it.

The lift came into sight. Steeling her resolve, she walked down the metal steeps and moved onto the lift. The door behind her closed as the robotic voice said something but she didn't pay attention as she looked up.

"I'm coming Shaun, wait for me, please." she said as the lift began to move.


	2. Chapter 2 The Minuite-men

Ok so before you start I like to try and make things as realistic as possible. For this weapons from all fallout games will be here, and buildings and towns are bigger as well.

Chapter 2 The Minutemen.

The lift neared the top. As it came closer Ashley covered her eyes as the light met her eyes. Years in cryo must have affected her eyes because she needed to cover them. But when the lift stopped, her arm loosely fell to her side to behold the devastation in front of her. The world she had known was gone forever and this new world was all she had. Her home was only half a mile out and she could see the broken buildings. She breathed slowly looking at the scene in front of her. While she could see the horror of the war, the serenity was oddly disarming. Shaking her head, she turned and follow the path that she used to get here to get back home.

Walking passed the billboard she saw the gate she came through. Skeletons were piled all around the gate with their clothing seemingly burned to their skin. Images appeared in her mind on when people were trying to get through the gates. The three soldiers, two in power armour and one ticking people off. Civilians trying to get through before the bomb fall. Ashley could only imagine what happened, looking ahead she continued on down the past walking through the wooded area behind sanctuary. Walking images of her… Nate and Shaun running through it all came to mind. It was hard to believe that it was such a long time ago. But… how long?

She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice that she had made it back home and bumped into a lamp post. She fell backwards with a grunt, looking up at the post, all she could see was rust and worn away paint on it. Sighing she stood and looked to her left. All she could do was stare down the street at the once populated village. Images filled her eyes as she sat this street in the sun, cars and vans moving passed parent's taking their children for a walk or back home… home. She walked for a few moments before breaking out into a run.

Home, where she gave birth to Shaun, she ran. Where Nate broke his leg and had a laugh… she ran. Where Max and a pregnant Kelly had fun with them... she ran. The 10th house on the left side of the road, she had made it as tears fell from her eyes like rain. Looking at the once blue house, it was still standing, parts of it were gone but it still stood. Her knees gave in and she fell onto them as relief flowed over her like a wave. Wiping her eyes, she stood and looked at the house. It was in ruined and in disrepair, but she was home.

Entering images of her cooking with Codsworth while Nate was playing with Shaun, all three of them watching cartoons, having breakfast, lunch... all of her old memories came flooding back. Once they had gone the true state of her use was shown dusty old and rusted, but nothing that couldn't use some repair work. As she walked in she looked down the hall to her and Nate's bedroom. She walked down it, to the right as the master bedroom but her left was her baby's, Shaun's. Unwillingly she walked in, the room was as bad as the rest of the house the only thing left standing was the crib. Walking up to it her tears fell once again and she fell to her knees and touched it before outright crying. She didn't know how long she cried before she gritted her teeth.

"Mama's coming for you, honey. Just wait for me." she said.

But as she said that, she heard something coming from outside. Her combat instincts kicked in and braced herself on a wall standing with her pistol in hand. She edged to the door frame before moving out into the hall her back against the wall again. The sound of a jet and arm gyros met her ears... could it be? If it was, did the programming degrade or did the logic circuits fail? She moved up to the living room and took a deep breath before moving out into the open. For a few moments, time slowed down as her eyes fell upon a Mr. Handy assistant bot.

"As I live and breathe… Miss Ashley? It's really you!" it said.

"Codsworth?" Ash asked in surprise lowing her weapon. "You're still here? So other people could still be alive."

"Well of course I'm still here!" he said proudly. "Surely you don't think a little radiation could deter the pride of General Atomics International? But you seem worse-for wear best not let the hubby see you in that state." he said before his eyes turned around a bit. "Where is Sir, by the way?"

"They came into the vault maybe you saw them did you see anyone is strange outfits?"

"Only Ms. Rosa's boy running around in his costume more than a week early. I swear the nerve of that woman leaving her brat unsupervised not like you mum. You're the perfect mother. And Sir… oh, where is Sir by the way?"

"Codsworth, he's not here. He dead, they killed him." she said trying to hold back her tears.

"Mum... these things you're saying. These... terrible things... I... I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood."

Ashley looked at the flying robot. Apparently GAI didn't account for unseen owner deaths or even when one of the owners tell it. Either through negligence or programming errors overtime.

"It's been ages since we had a proper family activity. Checkers or perhaps charades, oh, Shaun does love that game. Is the lad with you?"

"Codsworth... listen to me… carefully have you seen him? Have you seen Shaun?"

"Why, Sir had him last, remember? Perhaps he's gone to the Parker residence to arrange a play-date?"

Ashley shook her head. "It makes no sense. There's no reason why would someone take my baby." she thought out loud.

"It's worse than I thought! Hmm, you're suffering from hunger induced paranoia. Not eating for 200 years would do that I'm afraid."

When she heard that number she backed up a bit. "200 years? What? Are you-" she tried to say but couldn't get her words out. She just didn't know what to say.

"A bit over 210 actually mum. Give or take a little for the earth rotation and some minor dings to the ol' chronometer. That makes you, err, 200 years late for dinner! Hahaha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack. You must be famished!"

"Codsworth... are you ok?" she asked.

"I... I... oh mum, it's been horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve. I spent the first ten years trying to keep the floor waxed but nothing gets nuclear fallout from vinyl wood, Nothing! And don't get me started about the futility of dusting a collapsed house. And the car, the car! How do you polish rust?"

Ashley just smiled with a tear in her eye walked up and hugged his chassis. "It's okay, Codsworth, it's ok." she said calming him down and backed up. "Tell me what happened."

"I'm afraid I don't know anything mum. The bombs came and you all left in such a hurry. I thought for certain that you and your family were... dead. I did find this holotape. I believe that Sir was going to present it to you. As a surprise but then everything… happened."

Ashley just looked at the orange tape, she nearly held her breath about what was on it. "What's on it?" she asked as she took it.

"I believe that it's a private message for you. My etiquette protocols wouldn't permit me to play to it myself. Any standard..." he tried to say but Ash held her hand up.

"I know, Codsworth, I'm an engineer, remember?"

"Oh, sorry mum, my memory circuits aren't too good nowadays. Now, enough feeling sorry for myself. Shall we such the neighbourhood together? Sir and Shaun may turn up yet."

Ash looked at the holotape, her hand was shaking uncontrollably. She didn't want to listen to it but a part of her told her that she had to whether she wanted or not.

"I need to be alone for a moment, Codsworth." she said.

"Ok Miss Ashley... I'll be out here if you need me." Codsworth said as he looked at plants.

Ashley walked down the hall and into her bedroom holding the tape in her hand. Was this a confession for cheating or something else? Looking at her Pip Boy she opened the holotape slot and slid it in before closing it and listened as Nate's voice came.

"Oops, hahah. Keep those little fingers away... Ah, there we go. Just say it, right there, right there, go ahead. Ah, yay! Hi honey, listen I don't think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a mother you are. But, we're going to anyway. You are kind, and loving, and funny, that's right, and patient. So patient, patience of a saint as your mother used to say. Look, with Shaun and us all being home together it's been an amazing year but even so I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes sure, things we'll need to adjust to. I'll rejoin the civilian workforce; you'll shake the dust off your law degree. But everything we do no matter how hard, we do it for our family. Now say goodbye Shaun. Bye-bye, say bye-bye. Bye honey, we love you."

She couldn't hold the floodgates any further. Her tears were now flowing freely as she lie curled up on her old bed, crying for her dead husband whom she'd never see again. Crying for her lost son who was taken from her, and crying for her family and friends. All her old memories came rushing back.

"WINTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING YOU BLOND BIMBO?" a drill sergeant yelled.

Ashley looked up despite her tears she could see her old drill Sergeant standing in front of her. He knew that she wasn't a blond but a natural dark red head. Seeing him, her instincts came back and jumped to attention.

"Sir, I was lost in thought, sir!" she said quickly.

She was back in basic training, standing in formation with her battalion in the heavy rain. Around her were tents with other recruits running laps around the base. It was the second week of training because that was when it rained the hardest, and she nearly came down with a cold.

"Missing your family, bimbo?" the Sergeant asked. "Then maybe you'll love to running laps around the compound, NOW!"

'Now', those words echoed in her ears as she found herself back in her old bedroom. She finished crying, looking down on the bed she could almost smell Nate, the ready-made bed and the soft scent of candles in the air. Codsworth said it first, 'Time to stop moping'. She closed her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath; she was ready to move out.

"Codsworth!" she said walking out of the house.

"Mum." he replied, coming to her.

"Did anyone break into my personal safe?" she asked.

"No, mum, that was the one thing that I was sure that no one could find. Despite a little rust, it is still intact." he said. "Right where you left it."

Ashley smiled and headed towards her car. She walked over to it and inspected it. An old Corvega car, destroyed and salvaged for parts, she didn't need it anymore so that didn't phase her. Placing her hands on it, she pushed it aside; having mostly been hollowed out by now, this was a difficult but not impossible feat. There was a familiar loose tile, and underneath it was her secret safe that only she and Nate knew about.

Taking out a key, wedged it into a loose part of the concrete, and lifted it from its position. Revealed for the first time in over 200 years, the safe did its job of keeping her belongings secure. Inside was three plastic bags, she reached down and pulled them out and opened them. Inside the first was her old combat webbing, the second was her old laser pistol, and the final one had the fusion cells to it. People called her crazy for it, but it was one of the old ironies of being prepared.

She threw her webbing on and fastened the clips on holding it in place. She then picked up the pistol and slid it into the holster on her left and the magazines of fusion cells into two of her pouches. Standing she turned to Codsworth.

"Ok, let's find them." she said.

"Right away mum." he said as his scanner engaged and he moved to the next door house detecting movement.

With her 10mm in hand, she followed the hovering robot. She didn't want to use her laser pistol as she had calibrated it to fire more powerful shots at the expense of faster cell drain. As she followed him into the house, the sound of buzzing met her ears. From the sound of it, it sounded like flies. But as she entered, a large bug-like monster came down the hall. Before she could react Codsworth unleashed a jet of fire at it, practically cooking the beast as he felled a couple more.

This time, her combat training took over. Her weapon raised and the scent of gunpowder filled her nose before she even pulled the trigger. She fired, double tapping the trigger and sending two rounds into the flying bugs. They both popped the first one's head. The beast fell onto the floor dead as Codsworth came up with his buzz-saw and cut the beast in half.

"Hmm, not here… Ah! My sensors are picking up movement." Codsworth before exiting the building with Ashley close behind him.

They moved up to a tree in the middle of a roundabout. As they passed it she looked up at it before Codsworth entered a building. She followed him into the building but as they walked in the sound of cockroaches met her ears and they came down the hall. Once gain pistol was raise but as Codsworth was in first he had taken care of two of them and finished the third with his flamethrower. Once he was done he came up to Ashley.

"Your family isn't here either. They're... they're really gone aren't they?" he said.

"Don't worry about it Codsworth I wasn't expecting to find them here." Ash said as she sat down.

What she had just said was a lie, part of her had hoped they were here but she knew that it was too much to ask for.

"Shaun's out there Codsworth, I need to find him."

"What about Concord mum?" he asked making her raise her head. "Plenty of people there. And last I checked they only pummeled me with sticks a few times before I had to run back home."

Concord was a small town not too far from Sanctuary hills, she went shopping there a few times for the basics before heading into Boston. She smiled.

"Thanks, Codsworth." she said as she stood and walked out of the house with her robot following her.

"Good luck. You'll find young Shaun. I know you will." he said. "I shall remain here and secure the home-front."

"Yeah, home." she whispered.

She walked along the road following it around a corner and onto a wooden bridge. Looking around she had to wonder if anyone could survive. The beasts she had encountered had clearly been affected by radiation. As she walked across the bridge two bodies came into sight, human body's. But she slowed her pace, old war stories came back to her. Chinese occupants lay down pretending to be dead as marines took a bunker, they then sprang up to kill said marines keeping control in their hands.

Stepping lightly, she got up to the bodies and looked at them. Bullet wounds from a .38 weapons they were dead, how long she couldn't tell but right know she didn't care. Getting down to one knee she pushed the body so that it was on its back. Again she saw the bullet wounds, he was dead. The outfit looked like Long Johns with a makeshift harness with pockets along the straps. Satisfied she slid her pistol into her other holster on her right and she opened the pockets of the corpse. Inside, she found two stim packs and three magazines of .38 ammo.

Taking the magazines out she looked at them with interest. They seem to have been handmade, looking down she found a weapon that seemed to be made from piping and wood. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a handmade, makeshift weapon with a great deal of rust. Placing the magazine down she took the handle of the weapon and looked down the sight's which looked like a small tube with nails hammered into the sides.

Shouldering the weapon, she squeezed the trigger as four rounds came out and hit the dirt. The mag must be empty, she took the mag out and slid another one in. But then she looked around it, most weapons needed to be cocked in order to load a round into the chamber. A screw in the side of the barrel next to a spring. Taking a hold of it she pulled it back before letting go and pulled the trigger and a shot fired.

"Ah, ok." she muttered to herself.

She slid the weapon into one of her back pouches before she looked to the other corpse. Moving over to this one was already laying on its back. The body was clearly female given two lumps in the chest of the same size. Shaking her head, she checked the pouches on her own straps, inside where 3 stimpacks and .38 magazines which she took and slid into her pouch before moving on. A hill was blocking her view as she walked along the road bust when she passed it she got a good look at Concord a good mile and a half out. Some of the buildings were still standing which she smiled at but there were flashes of yellow and red.

"Probably fires." she muttered to herself.

But she knew that part of her said otherwise. 'More than likely, gunfire and laser-fire.' she thought. Stopping she shook her head and looked again, more flashes of red and yellow, looking along the road she noticed a red rocket station about half a click from where she was. Salvage, was the only thing that came to mind. Looking from Concord to the station and nodded, best to find what was at Red rocket before moving to Concord.

She moved across the blasted field towards Red rocket. As she moved she couldn't help but smile, she remembered how long it used to take to get to Concord in her car. Now she could move twice as fast, the Red rocket station came closer and closer. But as she got half the way there something spluttered blood at her. She felt the warm liquid on her arm which made her react to the beast. Looking at where the blood came from, what she saw looked like some kind of overgrown mosquito. Her eyes widened as she backed up a bit as fear filled her. One of the things she was frightened of was mosquitoes. Gulping she broke into a run towards the Red rocket as fast as her legs would carry her.

The blur around her didn't bother her as she ran past the trees. She soon hit the back door to the Red rocket, kicking it open she ran inside before closing the door. Breathing heavily for a few moments the buzz moved around the station and into the refueling part. Before they could move a dog jumped at and bit one of the giant mosquitoes killing it. She walked up to the front to see what looked like a German Shepard feasting on the big bug. Seeing a predator, the other two buzzed off, once they had gone Ashley walked around into the refueling area and the dog looked up at her which a bit of bug meat still in his mouth.

"Hello, boy." she said getting down to one knee as the dog came up.

She moved the meat out of his mouth and whipped the blood of him he gave a playful bark.

"Wanna come with me, pal?" she asked.

The dog barked in response and ran in a circle making her smile.

"Ok let's stick together. Come on."

Ashley started to walk to Concord with the dog following close by. It took them around half an hour to reach the small town. As they got closer, the gunfire and laser-fire grew louder, she went over her combat training in her head. She pressed her back against the wall of one of the buildings and looked down the street, nothing. Looking at the tops of the buildings, she couldn't see any snipers. But then again, snipers would good at hiding.

But she had to move. As she scanned the area, she noticed a sign for the freedom museum. The gunfire and laser-fire she heard came from that direction, looking up and down the street there was no one, or at least no one she could see. Given the noises, following the signs where her best bet. She followed the street to the left and moved down main street fast then came face with the museum down the street.

As she moved she pressed her back against a building wall and moved slowly up. There was at least seven people dressed in similar outfits as the corpses she saw earlier. They moved around the street firing on the balcony of the museum. Looking up a red beam it one of the attackers. She had nearly 20/20 eyesight, she could see a man in a cowboy-like hat and a brown trench-coat holding some kind of laser weapon. The man took cover as a high calibre round hit close to him.

"COME ON, BITCH! BRING IT ON!" yelled one of the attackers.

Ash didn't know what to do, she came across two groups attacking each other and didn't know who to go for. Her eyes wandered until she saw a skull on the belt of one of the attackers. That to her was the only evidence she needed. Taking out one of the frag grenades she then pulled the pin and looked out, three of the attackers where near an old fusion powered car. She knew that those things would have fuel for the next hundred or so years. Throwing the grenade, she moved from the building and brought up her 10mm pistol and fired.

The attackers were focused in taking out the sniper on the ledge; when Ashley started to fire they failed to notice the grenade she threw. She fired five round when the grenade exploded along with the car. Four of the attackers went up in a small mushroom cloud when she hit cover. One of them was still alive but had their leg blown off. The dog ran up to the fallen attacker and bit his neck severing his windpipe killing him. One of the attackers noticed and aimed at the dog but he didn't see Ashley run up to him. When she was a foot from him she jumped up and used both of her legs to kick him in the chest.

The force of the kick sent him staggering as Ash landed on a nail that she didn't see. As she hit it she groaned in pain, a sniper then aimed at her but before he could get a shot off, the sniper on the balcony shot at him and turned him to ash. Ashley got up and pulled the nail out of her side, the bleeding wasn't bad so she took out a plaster from her medical pouch and rubbed it on her wound. She looked up at the sniper who was looking at a building to her right.

She looked at it too as a shot was fired and grazed her arm. Wincing, she dove behind the car wreck for cover as more shots came. The sniper could get a clear shot so it was up to her, she didn't want to use the other grenades as she might be able to sell them. Taking a deep breath, she slowly moved out of cover and aimed her pistol. As soon as the attacker came out of cover she fired three rounds in rapid succession. One hit her in the chest, but the other two missed.

The attacker was female, but from how she was still charging at Ashley, she was likely on Jet or Psycho. Ash lined up for another shot, but only heard click from her empty magazine. The dog jumped and got the attacker in the leg and brought her down to earth. Ash took out her next full mag, but the sniper took down her attacker before she could reload. She looked up at the sniper who waved to her.

"Hey there, raiders are about to break through the door! Grab the laser musket and get in here." he said before running inside.

"Laser musket?" she asked before looking at the bodies around her. "So, they must have been raiders."

Looking around she then saw something by the foot of the steps. She walked over to before cover her nose in disgust. The body had been dead for a few days at least, she looked up at the balcony, how long have they been up there? Looking down again she saw what looked like a makeshift rifle with laser items just slapped on. Picking it hip she holstered her 10mm and looked at the weapon. There was a leaver on the left which she took a hold of and spun it. A whirring sound met her ears and a red light in the glass cylinder appeared.

"Interesting, this laser uses a crank to generate a charge for the power supply." she muttered.

She then walked up the steps and into the museum. But as she and her dog entered round landed near her feet. She dived to the right for cover and pressed her back against one of the pillars. Round came raining down around her but it didn't penetrate the wood which was a good sign. It meant that if she played her cards right she may be able to get out of this without a scratch. There was a door on her left, but she couldn't risk it with that raider. She looked out to see what was left of the museum. The Raider fired at on her from top of the ticket booth. She came out from cover and fired, the laser beam connected with the Raider who screamed in pain as the searing heat burned his arm. She cracked the rifle as fast as she could before aiming and firing again, this time the raider died, allowing her and the dog to move through the door.

The dog followed close behind her as she ran into a few Redcoat mannequins and raiders. She dropped her rifle and drew her 10mm and fired several shots. Only one landed, but it took out his eye. Ammunition now becoming an issue, she ran up to the blinded raider and put him in a headlock and choked him out. She found herself looking at another raider as he was lining up his pipe rifle. "Crap," she thought. Thankfully, Dogmeat jumped on the raider and the shot went wide. Taking the opportunity, she finished choking the raider and readied her weapon.

She turned to see the raider and the dog wrestle with each other but then the dog lunged to his throat, clamping down on his windpipe, killing him. Watching this, Ashley made the assessment that while he was domesticated, his hunting instincts were undulled. This dog was lethal and loyal. After he let go of the raider, he turned to her, panting. She got down on one knee and stroked his head.

"Who's a good boy?" she asked playfully.

He barked playfully and licked her face. Smiling she walked over to the rifle and picked it up, granted it was useful but one shot before reload wasn't a tactical for close quarters. It had a shoulder strap so she threw it over her shoulder before moving on. They moved out into the open where there was a big hole in the ground made by rotten wood. Rounds then hit around her feet making her run across the foyer and up the stairs to the second level. She ran across the landing and fired at the other raiders across the building.

She dove into cover once again as another raider this one armed with a Chinese assault rifle came running up. The dog ran up and bit him in his most unprotected. He screamed like a little girl as he dropped the rifle as the dog castrated him. Ash picked up the weapon with her left and pulled the trigger. Several rounds hit him in the chest killing him instantly. She then dragged the body into cover before taking out 5.56 ammo along with the magazines. Sliding them into one of the pouches, this was a weapon she was used to, this was a weapon she can use with efficiency. Sliding the 10mm pistol back she saw a staircase leading to the third floor. That was where she could find the trenchcoat sniper.

Moving out of cover, she aimed with her new weapon and fired one round after another. While the weapon was automatic, she kept it to semi-automatic for accuracy. She aimed at the raider at the other side of the room. Four shots were fired at the raider, they all hit centre-mass, putting him down.

She then moved up a flight of stairs, to the third floor. A raider brandishing a sword came running from the landing at her and brought the blade down on her. Weapon at the ready, she blocked it with her rifle, leaving him wide open. Taking this opportunity, Ash delivered a hard kick to the nethers, crippling him before Dogmeat pinned him down. Ash then took out her 10mm sidearm and finished him off. Finally making it to the top floor, only two raiders were left standing. Seeing as how they were ducking behind cover and not shooting at her, they were out of ammo.

Aiming her rifle, she fired through the rotten wood and took them out. Standing back up, she then looked over to her right as door opened. Still on an adrenaline rush, she snapped her weapon at the direction, only to find the sniper and four others huddled inside.

"Man I don't know who you are but your timing's impeccable. Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minute-men." the man in the trench coat said walking up to her.

Lowering her weapon, "Minutemen? Did I go back in time isntead?" she said with a little smile.

Preston smiled at that. "'Protect and serve at a minute's notice'. That was the idea. So I joined up wanted to make a difference. And I did, but things fell apart. Now it looks like I'm the last minute-man left standing."

"The world's changed so much." Ash said in nearly a whisper.

"You all right?" Preston asked hearing what she said. "Listen, we need your help. And then maybe we can help you huh? What brought you here?"

Ashley looked down letting a single tear fall. "My baby, Shaun he's been kidnapped. He's not even a year old." she said.

"That's messed up. I'm sorry, I know how this world can be. A month ago there were 20 of us, yesterday there were 8. Now we're 5, first it was the Ghouls in Lexington." he looked away from her as if in shame. "Now THIS MESS!" he said kicking a glass into the far wall breaking it.

"Ghouls? What are Ghouls?" Ash asked making him look at her with wide eyes.

"Wow, you really aren't from around here are you? Ghoul's are... irradiated people most are just like you and me. They look pretty messed up, and live a long time, but they're still just people. The ones I'm talking about are different. The radiation's rotted their brains; made them feral. They'll rip you apart just as soon as they look at you. Anyway we figured Concord would be a safe place to settle. Those raiders proved us wrong. But well we do have one idea."

"Let's hear it."

Preston then looked over to a man in blue overalls and goggles. "Sturges, tell her." he said.

The man turned to face her. "There's an old Vertibird up on the roof. Old school. You might have seen it. Well it looked like one of the passengers left behind a seriously goody. We're talking about a full set of cherry of T-45 power armour. Military-issue." he said in an accent that sounded southern to her.

"Sound's good, but if you had power armour training, then you'll be using it against these raiders." Ashley said.

"Well, now! You know your stuff. But it gets better. You get the power armour and rip the minigun right off the Vertibird. Do that, and those raiders will get an express ticket to hell. You dig?"

Ashley couldn't help but smile. "A minigun? Now we're talking."

"I know right, but there's one hitch. The suit's out of juice. Probably been dry for 100 years. It can be powered up again, but we're a bit stuck."

"A standard FC fusion core. Power armoured suits need them in order to operate." Ashley said remembering the operational procedures from her military service.

"Yeah, we know right where to find one." Preston added.

"But we can't get to the damn thing." Sturges said. "It's down in the basement locked behind a security gate. Look, I fix stuff, I tinker. Bypassing security just ain't my forte. Maybe you could give it a shot?"

"Can't be too hard. I'll see what I can do."

"Well, alright. Maybe our luck's finally turning around. Once you jack the core into the power armour, grab that minigun. Those raiders will know that they picked the wrong fight. Good luck." Preston said.

Ashley nodded and walked out of the room. The hole in the floor on the ground floor lead into the basement. Looking over the railings to see the engine in the basement. Looking over to the entrance gate, she could jump down to it then into the basement. She walked over to it then jumped down before jumping then sliding down the wood into the basement and in front of the security gate. The terminal activated as she came close. Walking up to it and typed a few words. In order to hack the system, she had to find the right word.

She closed her eyes as she thought. After a moment she then typed in 'free' and the terminal went to the options. She smiled as she opened the door. Walking inside the then took the fusion core out of its housing and into a pouch. She then walked up the fallen floor and moved up to the roof with the dog behind her. On the fourth floor like Sturges said was a crashed Vertibird with power armour right in front of it. It was turning dark so she needed to do this now but still she smiled as she walked up to it and took out the empty core and inserted the new one.

She then turned the wheel and the armour opened. Stepping in, she felt a little nostalgic as the armour closed around her. Walking up the Vertibird, she ripped the minigun off before running off the building and landing in the street with a thud. More raiders came running and firing at her. The rounds deflected off her armour as she brought up her heavy weapon. Pulling the trigger, the 5mm rounds then flew across the street and through the raiders. The raiders never stood a chance as they were mowed down under heavy fire. 

The area was now filled with bodies. As she walked up the street, a rumbling made her stop. A grate up ahead burst open as a scaled beast came up from the sewers. She backed up as a large brown beast with horns and a tail stood on its hind legs before it roared. It turned to her and charged. A red beam then flew through the air, hitting it its head. Ash turned to see Preston and her dog standing on the balcony, the dog barked as Preston cranked the rifle in his hands before firing again.

Ashley turned to face the beast and pulled the trigger, spraying bullets into its leathery hide. It slashed at her, ripping part of her armour right off the frame. Staggering back, she just held the trigger down and kept pumping the beast full of lead. It slashed at her again, this time ripping off her leg armour, this time damaging the leg actuator. She fell over and the Deathclaw was now on top of her. Her gun had stopped firing. Did she let go? She pulled the trigger again and all she heard the dreaded dead man's click, causing her to break out into a panic. "I'm sorry, Shaun… mama couldn't save you..." But before the Deathclaw could finish her off, a laser lance pierced through its head, killing it. She was feeling her heartbeat again, which she was sure had stopped, as the adrenaline rush finally died off. Getting back up, she inspected the large beast. Whatever this thing was it was dead now, but she wasn't sure about it. This new world was terrifying whether she liked it or not. She brought her armoured boot down on its head, crushing it, and making damn sure it was dead.

Looking around, she then turned and walked back into the museum before taking the helmet off. The others were up against the ticket booth wall. She walked up to Preston.

"You guys going to be ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, for a while anyway. We can at least move somewhere safer. Listen, when we first met, you asked about the minutemen one thing you should know about us, we always help out our friends." he said as she handed her a pouch with something jangling inside. "So here, for everything you've done."

Ashley looked inside to see two fusion cells and 100 Nuka cola bottle caps. She raised her brow at that but she slid it onto one of her spare pouches.

"Thanks, I'll take all the help I can get." she said with a smile.

Preston smiled too. "Spoken like a true merc. Well, if you should ever feel like fighting for something other than yourself, you should meet up with us in Sanctuary. I could use someone like you. Someone who can get things done."

"What do I need to do?" she asked.

"You need to stay strong-" said a new voice.

Ashley turned to see an old woman somewhere in her 70's or 80's who was dressed in what made her look like those old gypsies.

"-like you've been. Because there's more to your destiny. I've seen it. And I know your pain."

"My destiny? What are you talking about?" Ashley asked.

"You're a woman out of time. Out of hope. But all is not lost. I can feel your son's energy. He's alive."

Grabbing her attention, "Where is my son? Where is Shaun?"

"Oh, I wish I knew, kid. I really do. But it's not like I can see your son. I can… just feel his life force, his energy. He's out there. And I don't even need the sight to tell you where you should start looking. The great city of the Commonwealth, Diamond city. The biggest settlement around."

"What's in Diamond city? Is Shaun there?"

"Look kid, I'm tired now. Maybe you bring me some chems later the sight will give a clearer picture."

"Mama Murphy, no. We talked about this. Those things will kill you." Preston said looking at the old woman.

"Oh, shush, Preston..." she said.

But Ashley stopped listing and sat down on the floor. She just needed to think for a while. Out of time. It sounded so wrong to her, this wasn't her time, nor the world she wanted. By all rights she should be dead, dead with the old world. Sniffling slightly, she had to find her son but as she looked up at the five got their stuff together. The dog came up to her and nudged against her making her pet him. Standing she then followed them.

"I'll help you get settled in Sanctuary." she said to Preston. "By the way, names Ashley Winter."

OOOOO

Somewhere in the southern commonwealth a small group of people in black armour with a white star and a sword down the middle on their combat armour where running. A group of men in green uniform chased them. While they had similar armour and uniforms they were different groups. That was the wasteland now, lawless with gangs and groups with guns. Each of the groups fired on each other with semi-automatic combat rifles and hunting rifles. But one group has laser weapons.

"COME ON, MOVE!" yelled a man in a red beret.

As they moved through a destroyed street one of the men in the green uniforms managed to shoot a high heat energy bolt at one of the black uniformed soldiers in the leg. The soldier screamed out in pain.

"KAI!" the man yelled.

"I'm coming Kai!" yelled another one holding a .50-cal anti-material rifle.

"COVER HAWK!" the man yelled.

The group then stood their ground as they fired at the green armoured soldiers as a Vertibird came down.

"COBRA, COME ON!" the pilot yelled as the aircraft landed.

Hawk then came dragging Kai with him. The group got onto the aircraft and they took off as a missile landed near them.

"Joe, get us somewhere safe!" Cobra yelled.

OOOOO

The group of six arrived at Sanctuary. Little happened on the way to the village. But when they arrived Preston looked to Ashley with a smile.

"I'm glad you decided to come with us, I should have listened to Mama Murphy all along. Pretty nice place she's found for all of us. I think we could settle down here, make it a place to call home. What do you think?" he asked.

"Yeah I used to like live here, before the war." she said.

Preston stopped and looked at her. "What do you mean? Before the war? Are you saying..." he tried to find the right words but Ash said them for him.

"I lived here... over 200 years ago. I was frozen for most of it. I just thawed out a few hours ago." she said.

Nearby Sturges spat out his drink before looking at Ashley with wide eyes.

"Damn. Like one of those pre-war Ghouls. Explains a lot. But was anyone else with you did anybody else make it out with you?"

"Just my son, he was taken while I was trapped in one of those pods. I need to look for him."

"Damn I'm sorry. I hope you find him. Let me know if there's any way I can help." he said.

Before Ash could answer one of the others she walked with came running up and slapped Preston across the face.

"YOU BASTARD!" she yelled. "There's no food here!"

Ashley then looked up at the hill where 111 was and thought.

"Look I didn't know about that." he said in defence.

As he said that Ashley exited her power armour and looked to Preston. "How good are you in underground spaces?" she asked.

"I'm fine with them. Why?"

"Let's get Sturges, it's time to go back into the vault I was in." she said.

Preston nodded and the two ran up to the mechanic.

OOOOO

Ashley, Preston and Sturges stepped into Vault 111. The two wastelanders just looked in awe at the marvel of the Vault while Ashley just moved up the stairs. Shaking their heads, the two followed her.

"So you were frozen here for 200 years?" Preston asked.  
"Yeah, the equipment we need is in storage." she said not looking at them as she walked down the ramp. "When I was here over 3 hours ago the automated system downloaded the map and equipment inventory. Apparently I was to be on ice forever, but they still had food and other equipment to make sure the pods didn't fail."

"That sounds like it didn't work too well."

"You're right about that. Come on let's move." Ashley said just walking along.


	3. Chapter 3 The Brotherhood

Chapter 3: The Brotherhood

Inside the Vault, Ashley was in the room where she was frozen; she looked at the body of her dead husband. When she and the others entered the vault, this was the first place she came. She just stood there looking at him as Preston walked in. He was about to say something but he noticed her look at something, or rather, someone. He walked up to see that she was looking at; a corpse, a frozen one at that. It didn't take a genius to know what she was going through. Walking out, Sturges was outside the door and was about to walk in, but Preston stopped him.

"Don't. She... she needs to be alone." he said.

Inside the room, Ashley took Nate out of the pod and laid him down on the floor before walking out and coming back a few moments later, with white bandages in hand. She walked up to his dead body and began to wrap her husband's body in the bandages. Essentially she mummified him like the ancient Egyptians used to do. When he was fully wrapped in the bandages, she picked him up and took him to the lift and rode it up to the surface. When she made it, she then walked to Sanctuary and her home.

Codsworth followed her to the back yard and scanned the body.

"Oh my... sir." he said sniffing slightly as Ash laid him down and began to dig.

The robot helped by using his buzzsaw on the soil, helping his owner digging the hole. About an hour passed and Ashley took a good look at the 6-foot hole she and Codsworth made; the final farewell. She picked up Nate's body and placed him in the hole before covering it back up again. When he was finally gone from human sight, she then stuck a post at the head to mark where her husband was buried.

"Sir, mum will miss you. I will do my best to take care of her in your stead" Codsworth said.

"Goodbye, Nate. Take care of yourself on the other side." Ashley said before walking away and headed back to the Vault.

As she walked away, she steeled her nerves and resolve to finally accept his death. Burying her husband had given her the closure she needed to move on. Yes, she did love him with all her heart as they fought together during the war. Her childhood wasn't the traditional American one most of the time. Her father was a deadbeat drunk, her mother was gone and died a few years later when she was 10. During the war she watched too many friends die too quickly. Survival meant moving on quickly.

It was just one of the things that she learned to do. That was one of the things that allowed them to get along so well and survive the war. Both were passionate but neither wouldn't let it consume them. That was just who they were, but now she was alone. This was just war; she had to adapt and move on. Reaching the lift, she went back down to help the others.

OOOOO

The Vault 111 lift rose and stopped when it reached the top. On the lift was Ash and the two wastelanders she was with; and several crates of seeds, water purifiers, along with weapons and ammunition. They planned to connect the reactor with the settlement, giving them nearly unlimited power, but Ashley couldn't do it alone. As the lift stopped the three began to move the crates onto wheeled platforms. However, as they began loading them on, the sound of rotor blades reached her ears; she looked out into the landscape to see a flying vehicle coming in.

"Err, guys." she said, getting the attention of Preston and Sturges. "Does anyone have access to Vertibirds?"

"Well, there's the Brotherhood and the Enclave, but they're not around here and..." Preston trailed off, "Gunners."

Sturges pulled out a snub-nose revolver as his face betrayed his panic. "Gunners?" Ash asked.

"A bunch of ruthless mercs; they do anything for profit." Preston said.

Before Ashley could say anything, the Vertibird began to shake in the air. She had worked on them enough times to know when there was trouble. And from the looks of things, one of the engines was failing badly. It tilted as it came in fast and low; Preston and Ashley ran back towards Sanctuary while Sturges held back. He wasn't a fighter like those two; he was more of a mechanic than anything. He stayed put as the two moved across the small wood and back into the village, waiting for the bird to come down.

It was coming down hard but went it got low, several people jumped out as the aircraft flew into the trees and exploded. Three of them landed on their feet while three others landed in a heap. The ones who landed on their feet helped the ones who landed in the heap.

"Joe, WHAT KIND OF FLYING WAS THAT?" a man in a beret yelled.

"YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO THAT I CANNOT FLY THESE GODDAMN THINGS!" 'Joe' yelled.

Ash and Preston walked up to the group as they began to bicker with one another. One of them, a bald woman with a web tattoo on her head, was on her knee, looking at a laser wound on her friend's leg. But calling them friends would be a bit of a stretch, judging by how they were responding to one another. But then Ashley stopped and just stared. This "Joe" guy in the beret was talking almost too was horrifying to look at. He had little to no skin or hair, and his nose was completely gone. As he talked, it sounded like he had smoothing stuck in his throat, this made it even more odd, to say the least.

"Hey, Joe." the bald woman said making him look at her. "Ya got Vault meat looking at ya ugly ass."

Joe looked to Ashley who was walking up and stood next to Preston. He started for a moment before rubbing his eyes. The man with the beret looked from him to the woman who he was looking at.

"Ok, old man, what's up?" he asked.

"I don't believe my eyes." he said walking up to Ashley and touched her arm making her back away. "Ashley? Is that you?"

"Wait, Joe?" she asked looking at the body of her old boss.

"Hey, who's the cute redhead?" asked the wounded soldier as he stood but earning himself a kick between his legs.

He fell to his knees in pain holding his crotch and groaning in pain.

"Watch it, Kai." he said in annoyance.

"So, this is the miracle worker you told us about, old man?" the beret-wearing man said standing next to Joe who nodded. "So, why isn't she like you?"

"I was about to ask, you impatient dick."

Ashley just sniggered at that. "Haven't lost that attitude, have ya, Joe?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, well, a long time in the wasteland will do that to ya. But, what happened to you?"

"I was in Vault 111 until only recently. I was in a cryo freeze for the past 200 years." she said.

"Given Vault-Tec's reputation with other Vaults, I'm not surprised." the beret-wearing man said with Joe nodding, but the two of them got a raised brow from Ash.

"It's well known that some Vault-tec Vaults are little more than control groups." Joe said.

Given what she had been through Ashley wasn't surprised in the least. "Ok but Joe what happened to you? I mean you look like, errr..." she stuttered trying to find the right word.

"Walking corpse, a human without skin?" he said with a smile. "I've gotten used to the comments over the years. Anyway, when the bombs fell I was in my basement which was quite deep, except some of the radiation got through, and... well, turned me into a ghoul. Least I haven't gone feral yet."

Ash looked at him up and down. "So, you're what a ghoul looks like."

"Not been out of the freezer long, have you?"

"No, just a few hours." she said.

"Ok, by the way, where is your husband and child? Weren't they with you in the vault?"

Ashley looked down as she struggled to hold back her emotions.

"Joe, Nate's dead and someone took my baby." she said.

"WHAT, WHO? WHO DID?" he practically yelled.

"That's just the thing, I don't know. I was planning to head to diamond city after helping Preston and his group settle in." she said before Joe pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry Ash; I know how much you wanted a family after the war. I cannot imagine how hard this is for you." he said.

"Thanks, Joe." she said breaking the hug. "By the way, who are your friends?"

Before Joe could speak the beret-wearing man stepped forward. "I'm Cobra, the commander of the Star Swords."

"The group of mercs who demand food and water from villages in order to protect them?" Preston asked with a hint of resentment in his voice.

"You make it sound like we do it for fun, but yes, essentially." Cobra said.

"You demand food and water from settlements you protect?" Ashley asked in a disgusted tone.

"It's not like that; we ask for a cut of food and water from the villages we protect as payment. We assess how much food and water they produce before asking how much we can request. If they do not produce the necessary resources, we leave the village, regardless of who's living there. Bigger settlements and farms are valuable targets and produce enough for us to work. We need food and water in order to work. When we get our share, we sell the food to settlements we have a contract with. We spend caps on the ammo we need. It's a fair trade." Cobra argued.

"But what about the smaller settlements?" Ashley asked.

"Smaller ones don't tend to last very long regardless of protection." Cobra said in a matter of fact tone.

"Why?"

"Mutants, raiders, slavers; the list goes on." Preston said, knowing what the Sword Star commander was saying. "Smaller settlements, are always a prime target for slavers as they can take people without much effort, same goes for raiders and mutants."

"Right." Cobra spoke. "But the rest of Sword Star is outside the Commonwealth border. Joe, Kai, Kelly, Jack, Hawk, and myself, are the only ones left. Those goddamn Gunners took out most of our main force."

"Not to mention they took our power armour." Joe spoke up.

"Yeah, we need somewhere to lay low. Sanctuary seemed like the best place." Cobra said almost like he was asking for his group to join the settlers.

Preston just chuckled. "Sure, more help the better."

"Thanks. Now, what do you need?" Joe asked.

"We could use some help in getting the crates from the vault to Sanctuary." Ashley smiled.

Joe and Cobra just looked at each other smiled and shrugged before following Ashley and Preston to the Vault lift. While they carried the crates, Hawk and Jack climbed onto the roofs of two of the buildings as sentries. It took around five trips to and from the Vault to get everything they needed before the sun started to set. The settlers opened up one of the crates to find seeds inside. Joe who was a bit of a gardener back in the day and started to plant them while Ash and Cobra opened two crates containing military ration packs.

Preston and Sturges set up a cooking pot over a fire. They didn't have much in terms of vegetables or meat, even then it would be irradiated. Because of this they decided to have the ration packs until the seeds mature into food. Besides the ration packs could be cooked in water quite quickly and they filled a person up for the day. As the packs cooked Ashley was looking though the other crates just looking for something. She did eat one of the packs, the others didn't like them too much but she loved it. This was mostly due her time in the army, she had just gotten used to the taste and loved it.

Cobra looked towards her concerned, what was she looking for. Setting his empty packet aside he stood and walked up to her.

"Looking for something?" he asked making her look up at him.

"Sorry, force of habit. During my time in the war, I used to do inventory; I have good eyes for detail. This is just the old habit of mine acting up." she said as she pulled a blue and yellow bodysuit out with the thighs, biceps and belly being fish-netting. "Hmm, flexible nanofiber. Highly resilient and lead-lined." she muttered to herself and smiled. "Those Chinese scientists knew how to make them."

"Huh?" Cobra simply said.

"This is a combat suit, an old one at that. Used by Chinese agents to infiltrate American checkpoints during the war. They wore this under their normal clothing." she said with as smile. "I may have not have been a scientist but the local research team called me in a few times to reverse-engineer Chinese technology."

"Ok. So you planning you go to Diamond city tomorrow?"

"Yeah." she said folding the bodysuit. "Why?"

"I'll come with you, Joe will kill me if I don't." he said earning himself a deadly stare from her.

"I don't need protecting." she said.

"That's not… *sigh* Look, you don't know much about the Wasteland. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. You need to know how things go down here."

Ash looked away for a moment, he was right. During the war there was intelligence, information about the troops, and everything. Here, she had no intel and idea what was going on. She needed a guide to find her son in this new world. She looked to him, he was well-built like Nate; a true soldier. His face was scarred with scars on the side on his dirty face. He stood with confidence knowing that the next day maybe his last. The black armour he wore brought out his brilliant brown eyes that she could get lost in. Looking down at the bodysuit, she looked back up at him.

"Ok, fine, but don't get in my way." she said.

Cobra just smiled at that. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

OOOOO

Early next morning, Cobra and Ashley checked through their packs by the bridge. The Sword Star commander was armed with a hardened reflex scoped .44 revolver, an electrified combat knife, and an armour piercing combat rifle with the rifle stock replaced by the R-91 pistol handle stock. Ashley, on the other hand, had the Chinese rifle she took from a raider back at the museum; she also had her laser pistol and 10mm as sidearms. She didn't have the laser musket, as while it was good, its slow rate of fire was not adapted for pitched combat. She then zipped up her jumpsuit with the Chinese bodysuit underneath, then threw on her webbing and a back pack. Dogmeat was standing next to them waiting, to move as well.

Before they could move, Preston and Codsworth came up.

"We're coming with you." Preston said making the two of them stare at them.

"I, too, would like a word with the man who killed Sir!" Codsworth declared.

Cobra and Ash looked to each other before looking at the two. "The more the merrier." Cobra said.

"Yeah, ok come on." Ash said.

Preston smiled as the five of them then began to walk across the bridge and to Diamond City.

OOOOO

Paladin Danse looked over the wasteland as he stood atop Cambridge police station. His black Brotherhood armour reflecting the sunlight. All he could see was destruction of the old world; death, decay, and mutations. All who wouldn't use technology responsibly. He needed to save the wasteland. Looking down, he could see the last of the barricades being set up. But was it was a growl that met his ears. Looking across the street his fears were realised as ferals came running, storming the barricade.

"TAKE COVER!" yelled an initiate, bringing up his laser rifle and firing at the abominations.

Lances of red light flew through the air and hit dead, decaying flesh; burning but still coming as a Brotherhood scribe brought up a laser pistol and fired again. The beam hit the head of one of the ferals, taking it off in the process, but more came. One of the Brotherhood snipers looked down the sight of his laser sniper rifle and she could see that they were coming from the nearby metro as Danse joined in the defence.

"Paladin, they're coming from the metro!" the sniper yelled over the laser fire.

Danse looked into the town as more and d more ferals came. "Get, Jones, Marshall and Leon. Go stomp those freaks out!" the Paladin yelled.

The sniper nodded and jumped down from his spot. "OK, YOU HEARD THE PALADIN, FOLLOW ME!" he shouted as three others joined him, all of them in Brotherhood combat armour.

The Paladin, scribe and knight covered the four as they pushed forward to the metro. The three remaining Brotherhood members stayed and fought off as many as they could but sun was beginning to set in the distance. The Scribe knew this would be trouble, she turned to the police station and ran inside. Two heavy machine guns were set up on top of the police station but wouldn't last very long. While they could use oil, the Brotherhood didn't have any to spare at the moment. Danse and the Knight fought off as many as they could but one of the ferals grabbed onto the knight, biting his leg, and making yell out in pain.

The powered armoured paladin stopped on the feral as the guns activated and fired on the ferals. Danse then grabbed a hold of the knights arm and dragged him up the stairs and into the police station.

"Goddamn freaks!" the knight yelled out.

"Calm down, you'll be fine." the scribe said as she came up with a stimpack syringe in hand.  
She kneeled down and injected it into the man's thigh, making him yell in pain once again.

"Big baby." she muttered before looking at the Paladin who was looking out of the police window. "Danse?"

"Huh? Sorry," he said. "My mind was somewhere else." he rubbed his forehead before looking at the fuel gage on his arm.

The arrow pointed to the 10% mark, grunting he pressed the armour release and the suit opened up allowing him to get out. The Scribe walked up to him and looked at his battered face.

"Danse, you need to lie down, the day's been long, yes, but you need to sleep." she said.

"What, you going to pull rank?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, bed, now!". She demanded before walking over to the reception terminal and logged on.

Danse just sighed before looking out of the window once more. The guns were keeping the ferals at bay but for how long?

OOOOO

Outside of Lexington, in an abandoned building, Ashley took a look at the caps Preston had given her. The minuteman was asleep while she was up keeping an eye on a mole rat that was turning on a spit over a fire. Codsworth had shut down for the night to allow his batteries to recharge while Cobra was outside keeping an eye on things. Taking out one of the Nuka cola caps she sighed and lead back where she was sitting. The day had some interesting things going on, nothing major happened as they made their way to Lexington. The only problematic thing that happened was a mole rat attack.

The looked just like normal mole rats, just much bigger and far deadlier. They came out in a pack of 6 to attack them but they didn't last long, Preston and Cobra then took at least two each, and saying that it was food almost made her sick on the spot. But then again, it was to be expected. The smell of cooking mole rat met her nose, and she was hungry. It had been a long day of learning. Normally it would take her a few hours to get to Boston, but thanks to the devastation, scavenging and animal attacks it took longer.

She remembered those S.P.E.C.I.A.L animations that Vault-tec did. High-quality and informative, but she never expected to follow it as a survival guide. Preston and Codsworth were asleep and Dogmeat wasn't too talkative. She needed someone to talk to; looking over to the Star Sword merc, she broke the ice. 

"Cobra?" she called getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he called back.

"Could you come here, please, I a question."

He looked to her with a brow raised but shrugged. "Ok."

He got up and walked inside the hut and sat next to the fire. "So what you want to talk about?"

"What's the deal with these caps?" she asked him bluntly knowing she needed to start somewhere.

"Caps? Ok, I'm not too sure where it started but caps are used as currency out here, you can buy anything with them. Kinda like… dollars?" he asked with her nodding. "The only difference is that none of them have any extra value, one cap is one cap regardless of the maker."

Nodding at that she placed the cap bag in the bag before looking outside.

"So, don't take this the wrong way, but I heard from Joe that before you married, you used to-" he tried to say but she spoke up.

"Sleep with other guys?" Ash said with a smile. "Yeah, I used to get around; I'm not ashamed. The boys always had more than just one squeeze; I was just much better at it." She laughed. "Why?"

Cobra was silent for a moment before answering. "History about pre-war times is not well-known. The little information we do have comes from Vaults or books. The little we do know... seems like a golden age. Almost as if sex was much more sacred. These days, well, it's just one of those things that we do to make our reality a little less grim."

Ash smiled at that but she quickly fell tired and she went to sleep. With her now asleep, Cobra could only look at her, she was beautiful; almost like a goddess. Given how she fought earlier, almost like a goddess of war. Looking outside he couldn't imagine what she was going through, losing her husband and child in one day then learning you've been frozen for 200 years. She was strong, maybe stronger than he was. Hours passed before he fell asleep as well.

The sun rose and Dogmeat was the first to wake with a big yawn. He stretched himself out waking himself fully up. Standing he turned to his female owner.

"Hmmm Grace, stop it." she mumbled. "Alex whipped me hard last night and my body is stiff."

Dogmeat looked at her again before licking her hand making her twitch and one of her eyes opened. She saw Dogmeat next to her licking her, she yawned out loud waking Cobra almost instantly grabbing his .44 and pointing it around the hut.

"Relax soldier boy, *yawn* it's just me." Ashley said as she stood and began to crack her joints.

"You sound like a Deathclaw with that yawn." he said yawning himself.

"Deathclaw?" she asked looking at black armoured soldier.

"Remember that lizard you killed in Concord?" Preston asked as he sat him cracking his neck making Cobra wince while Ash nodded. "That thing is called a Deathclaw. They are the nastiest animals out here."

"Can you both quit cracking your limbs please?" the Sword star merc said. "If we're lucky we can get to the city today."

"Point." Preston said as he ripped off a leg off the molerat and began to eat it.

Cobra did the same while Ashley just looked at the brown meat of the mutated beast. Taking a deep breath she did the same and ripped off a leg as well and bit into it. After taking a bite, she immediately spit it back out.

"Ugh, god, it tastes like a foot!" she yelled before looking up at the two. "How can you eat this?"

The two looked at each other before shrugging. "We grew up with it." Preston said.

Looking at the two she looked at the leg and just swallowed before taking another bite and another and another. It tasted foul but she hungry. Once done, she picked up her bag and walked out as Codsworth booted up.

"Good morning, everyone." he said as his thruster set him to hover. "So, where are we off to?"

"Well, we're near Lexington right now, but I want to avoid it. The place is crawling with Raiders and ferals." Preston said.

"But we're still away from Diamond city, it may be the best idea to go through Lexington; we may even find salvage we can use. Besides, we're combatants." Cobra said.

Preston nodded at that. "Yeah, ok." he said picking up his own bag.

Ashley was outside, her stomach didn't like her at the moment and felt like it was going to turn itself inside-out. Cobra walked up to her and touched her on the shoulder.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick." she told him, trying to hold down her breakfast.

"Wait, err, this might sound odd but do you have any Radaway?"

"No." Ash replied.

Preston took out an IV solution bag and threw it to Cobra. The Sword star commander took the strange orange fluid into a syringe and stuck it into her arm. She was feeling a little better, if a little bewildered. She took a look at him and then to the Radaway.

"All animals, and most food and water is contaminated with radiation." Preston said.

"Oh..." she said, uneasy and unsure about what to say.

"Don't worry Miss Ashley, the amount you digested should not affect you. It's a similar amount to an x-ray scan." Codsworth piped up.

"That's good to hear, how are your scanners? What can you see in Lexington from here?"

"Not much activity. There is a bit of movement by a small building with a pool but that's about it."

"It's likely they're raiders; they must have taken out most of the ghouls." Cobra said with Preston in agreement.

"Let's move." Ash said picking up her rifle and walked with the others to Lexington.

As they walked Preston and Cobra looked around them keeping an eye out for an attack. Ashley looked around in a strange awe at the world. It held a fascinating, yet horrifying beauty to her. It was interesting to say the least. Unaware, off in the distance, a skeletal machine watched them closely, keeping an eye on them feeding video to a terminal in a white room. A man in his sixties watched as the five walked down the hills to Lexington. His beard and hair where grey showing his age, a white coat was over his green jumper.

He couldn't help but smile, he had heard about this in one of his e-mails but he never expected it to be true. A child came up and grabbed onto his arm. He turned to face the child and smiled.

"Hey there, young one." he said.

"Hello granddad, whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Oh just seeing what's going on on the surface."

"Oooooo did you see anything exciting?"

She said that a woman with dark flowing red hair came up a set of steps and looked to where the two were talking.

"Jennifer." she said in an annoyed tone walking over and picked up the young girl. "You're supposed to be at school!"

"Awww, but mom." the child demanded but the old man spoke up.

"You heard your mother, now get back to class." he said with a little chuckle.

"But granddad!" the child moaned.

"Thanks, dad." the older woman said before walking off.

The man lost his smile as he looked down and sighed, he never knew his parents. They had told him what happened but he'd never like to talk nor think about it. Looking to the screen he knew who she was after and decided to help her in whatever form he could.

OOOOO

The five entered Lexington with the three combat veterans keeping their guns up and their eyes open. raiders could pop out from anywhere, but as they walked down a street Ashley's pipboy buzzed. Looking at it, it seemed that she had picked up a radio station. She tuned the Pipboy to the signal.

"AUTOMATED MESSAGE...this is scribe Heylen of recon team Gladius to any Brotherhood personnel… all units have sustained casualties and running low on supplies, requesting support or evac at Cambridge police station..." the transmission then cut and she lost the signal.

"Cambridge? Oh shit, that place is a feral ghoul nest!" Cobra exclaimed.

"They're Brotherhood, so what about it?" Preston asked.

"I have seen a team of power armoured troops go into a feral ghoul nest and never come back."

"Sorry, Brotherhood?" Ashley asked but before anyone could answer a shot rang out and a round snapping on the concrete made them take cover.

Preston looked out from cover to see two raiders on a building not too far away, one of them held a sniper pipe rifle while the other held a quad barrel missile launcher. If there were other raiders, he couldn't see them. Pulling back, he cranked his musket as Cobra affixed his bayonet to his rifle.  
"Two on the building; can't see anyone else."

"They're probably inside." Ashley said, keeping her eyes open.

"Have at you, cowards!" Codsworth said out loud.

The raider with the rocket launcher heard the Mr. Handy and fired near his location.

"OH… my..." he said seeing the explosion.

"Codsworth, stay down and be quiet!" Cobra said as he moved out of cover and fired at the raiders' location.

The raiders took cover from the suppressing fire, allowing Ash and Preston to move up to their blind spot. Keeping his eyes open, the Minuteman aimed down his musket scope at the biggest threat; with the missile launcher gone, they'd be able to move a lot easier. When Ashley, dogmeat and Cobra got to a good firing position, the two Raiders popped their heads out of cover only to be met by a laser bolt on the face. The one holding the rocket launcher dropped the anti-tank weapon and held his face in pain as the blast only glanced his face, not outright killing him.

"RAZOR!" the sniper yelled as Razor fell from where he was perched and into a car pile. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT YOU SONOVABITCH!"

The sniper fired at Preston, ignoring Ashley and Cobra, who moved up into the building. Dogmeat ran ahead of them, growling as he did. He bit the raider on the leg, puncturing his leather armour, surprising him to a 10mm round to the head. He fell back as Ashley slid her 10mm pistol back into her holster and stood where the raider was. She waved to Preston, signaling him that the coast was clear. When he arrived he walked to the edge and noticed the raider with the heavy weapon.

"Damn, that's one hell of a fall." he muttered as Cobra opened up a steamer trunk and looked inside.

Codsworth came up and noticed what the Sword Star commander was doing.

"Sir, Don't the dead deserve to be at peace?" he asked.

"Relax, tin can, I'm only taking account of their worldly belongings. Though, it's not like they deserve it." he muttered under his breath. "Ooh, shotguns! Nice." as he pulled out a combat shotgun.

Ash walked over and looked inside the trunk as wall with a smile on her face. "I assume this is good?" she asked.

"Yeah, that reminds me: should we head straight to Diamond City or help out the Brotherhood?" Cobra asked.

"I'd rather not get mixed up with those guys, but it wouldn't hurt to get on their good side." Preston said looking at the two. "Cambridge is nearby, so we can lend a hand before move on to Diamond City."

Cobra nodded at that before looking to Ash. "What do you think?"

Ashley shrugged. "I'm not sure... just who are the Brotherhood?"

Cobra slapped himself in the face forgetting about that she might now know about the Brotherhood. Preston just smiled in amusement and shook his head.

"Damn it, sorry. Preston, could you help me out here?"

"Sure." the minuteman said. "The Brotherhood are a highly militaristic group; they hunt down and preserve technology from pre-war times. Basically, they hoard all they tech they can find; many people just call them technophiles. They mostly wear unpainted body armour and their more experienced soldiers wear black T-60 power armour. They are all trained in conventional warfare, but specialize in laser weaponry and combat drops."

Preston continued, "The Brotherhood is composed of multiple chapters, but I don't know much about this one. All I know is that the High Elder Maxson is..." Preston paused to find the right word.

"Mad." Cobra added, "He really has it out for ghouls. I mean... they killed a farm run by ghouls, completely unprovoked."

There was a heavy pause.

"As I said before," Preston continued, "I'd rather not get involved, but they do have the medical supplies and ammunition to spare. "

"I am in accord, Mum. Our stockpiles will not last for much longer." Codsworth spoke up.

"Okay." Ash finally decided, leaning on a wall before sighing. "I won't be able to save Shaun if we're not in top shape." she said. "Let's grab what we can and head to Cambridge."

The two nodded before looking around the raiders' outpost. Ashley found metal armour from the dead raider in the room. The nanofibre under her jumpsuit would protect her from the elements and stab wounds, but bullets and lasers were a completely different matter. The metal armour she got was very ramshackle but surprisingly well-built; the metal exterior looked like it could deflect oncoming rounds and the thick cloth underneath would absorb the impact.

Cobra took out several weapons from the steamer trunk which included a three combat shotguns, two 10mm SMGs and several pipe weapons. He also found some whiskey, but he wasn't going to keep it for very long.

"Ahhh, that's good." he said as he took a swig.

"Throw it here." Preston said before Cobra threw the bottle to him.

He also took a swig before holding it to Ashley.

"Oh, no thanks. After my graduation I binge drank for the better part of an evening, nearly destroyed one of my kidneys and slept with two of my friends. Haven't touched a drop since." she said with a smile at Preston who just looked at her in shock trying to processes what she had just said.

"Good for you!" Cobra called as he pulled out several boxes of ammo. "Ok, since we're going to Cambridge we going to need these." he said throwing a shotgun to the both of them.

Both of them caught the shotguns and the 12-gauge shells he tossed at them. "Ghouls love getting up close, but make every shot count." he said as he stood and slung the shotgun over his shoulder.

Preston also found several boxes of ammo before giving them to Ash and Cobra. Once they were satisfied, the gang of five then headed to Cambridge.

OOOOO

Danse fired at the oncoming ghouls with his laser rifle. There didn't seem to be any end to them, but they were still no match for heavy turrets and precision gunfire. The Scribe joined the fight with her laser pistol as well, but this was going nowhere fast. There was still no report from the team who went down into the metro, and were likely dead. If their draining power cells were any indication, they soon would be too. However, hope came in the sound of gunfire that wasn't his.

OOOOO

"That's a lot of zombies." Ash said as Cobra fired his rifle in the crowd as did Preston. "Let's move."

As they moved up Preston and Ashley got their shotguns out and fired into the crowd of Ferals, cutting them down. Dogmeat danced around the ghouls biting through their legs, letting Codsworth finish them off with his saw and flamer with stunning efficiency. Preston and Ashley barreled through with their shotguns, but the ghouls still had much higher numbers. Pushing through, Ash was tackled by one of them and managed to cut her thigh through her suit. Wincing in pain, she turned her gun on her attacker and blew its rotten brains all over the pavement.

More ghouls managed to come up behind them but the merc caught them with shotgun fire and downed the last with his bayonet. No longer moving and not immediately in danger, this gave them a moment to catch the breath. Preston got on top of the battlements and scanned the streets while Ashley injected a stimpack for her leg wound.

"Clear, for now." Preston said. "I'll keep an eye out."

Ashley then turned to look at a man who stood looking out at the street. He was in full power armour with a gear and cog emblem painted on the chest. There was other heraldry, but most notably, his big brown beard and piercing eyes.

"We appreciate the assistance civilians. But what is your business here?" he asked.

"Civvies? Please, if anything, he and I are mercs." Cobra said referring to Preston, who just gave a disapproving look at him.

"I'm Ashley." Ash said before pointing at her companions. "That's Codsworth, Dogmeat, Preston and Cobra. We were on our way to Diamond city before we picked up your signal."

"Are you from a local settlement?" he asked.

"No, we're from Sanctuary Hills." Cobra said, with Danse sighing.

"I do apologise if I find you suspicious. Our mission here has been hard since we got here. I'm Paladin Danse, Brotherhood of Steel. Over there is Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys." he said before noticing Ashley's jumpsuit. "If you're on your way to Diamond City, I'd advise caution. Raiders and Super Mutants have been spotted all throughout the Commonwealth."

"Which is why we responded to your distress signal." Ashley responded, "Our supplies are low and we could use whatever you could spare."

Danse contemplated for a moment before answering. "Come in first, we'll discuss the details inside."


	4. Chapter 4 The ark jet raid

Ashley sat in one of the wooden chairs as the police brought in several rioters. She sighed as she looked around at the starving people came in. As she waited, one of the officers came up and sat next to her. He was in the normal black policeman's outfit on, he also had a riot control vest on as he participated in quelling the riots. He looked to her and smiled.

"Hey, Ash, you here for your dad?" he asked.

"Yeah, dumb bastard got caught drinking and driving again." she moaned. "I mean, come on! I'm 17, and I'm the one paying for his mistakes. Mike, tell me: what am I doing with my life?"

"You're doing what you can." he said, patting her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever." she muttered as the chief came out with a man in his late sixties with greying hair.

The man looked to Ash, who gave him the all-too familiar disappointed look, and turned his head away quickly in shame. She stood and walked over to the two.

"Sorry about this, Miss-" the Chief tried to say but she interrupted him.

"George, you know me well enough; you can call me by my first name, now." she said annoyingly.

Amused, the man shrugged and nodded. "Okay, Ashley, he's on house arrest now. I know how busy you are, so I'll send Mike over tomorrow." he said before turning to the man. "As for you, be grateful that you have a daughter that still cares enough about you through all that's happened."

He then walked away as Ashley grabbed the man by the scruff of his jumper and dragged him out of the police station. More rioters were being brought in by the police as she dragged him down the street and past the metro. Finally reaching a bus stop, they both sat down and waited. The place was nearly devoid of all human life, as the riots had scared off most other people. Ash and the man sat on the seat, one noticeably upset and the other hunched over like a scolded dog.

"Look, honey..." he started to say but she cut him off.

"Don't talk to me." she said not looking at him.

"Ashley..."

She stood and looked at him. "NO, DON'T YOU 'ASHLEY' ME!" she yelled. "You've done nothing but hold me back since mom left! I was supposed to study with my classmates today, but I can't even do that anymore."

"You can still-" he tried to say but she was having none of it.

"No, I can't, and you know it!" Ashley visibly frustrated, "You're always drinking, and you've been doing nothing else for years. I can't leave you alone for a single moment! I know you miss her, dad, but so do I. She's dead and she isn't coming back, but it seems that only one of has has managed to accept it." Leaving it at that, she sat down and looked away. "You need to start taking better care of yourself because once I turn 18, I'm leaving, and I won't be around to bail you out anymore."

His daughter was right and he knew it. His life was in shambles, and he had no one else to blame but himself.

OOOOO

Ashley, Cobra, and Dogmeat walked into the police station right behind the power armoured paladin. The police station has seen better days, but aside from the rotting walls and barricades, it was the same police station that she saw her sorry dad so many times before, two hundred years ago.

"Yeah, feels like home…" Ashley reminisced.

"What?" Cobra asked, confused.  
"Nothing."

With everyone gathered at the reception desk, Paladin Danse began the conversation: "Now that we're all gathered, I want to thank you strangers for the timely rescue. While my brothers and I appreciate the gesture, our own supplies are nearly exhausted from the last attack. Half of our post is dead or missing, and we have yet to receive any word of relief." Ash and the rest figured as much, but it was no less disheartening. 

"That's too bad, because I thought we could help each other." Cobra said.  
"Our scouts reported valuable technology at nearby research facility, Arcjet systems. If we can get the deep range transmitter, we can use it to boost our distress signal to other members of the Brotherhood. If you want, you can join us and help yourselves to any salvage we may find."  
"Arcjet?" she said as an image of the moon came to mind.  
"Isn't that place under the control of the Institute? Or at least that's what I heard." Cobra asked.  
"We cannot confirm at this time." the scribe said. "We were ordered to investigate the premises and secure any technology that may be of value."  
"Sounds fair to me." Ash said absent-mindedly.  
Cobra looked to her for a moment before turning to Danse. "Yeah, sounds like a deal."  
OOOOO

[Mature content starts here, kiddos.]  
It was Ashley's turn to take watch that evening. It was mostly quiet outside, aside from Danse briefing his knight and his scribe. If there were any feral ghouls left, they were not here. Cobra wanted to know what was bothering her, but her predicament wasn't entirely unrelatable. Making his way outside the station, he joined her on the barricade. Sitting down next to her, the two of them remained silent for a long time before Cobra decided to break the ice.

"You seem distant. What's up?"

She still continued looking out at nothing, for what felt like hours. She glanced up at the moon, at least that was still there and not blown up over the course of the war. God, she missed her late-night dates and rendezvous with Nate. Turning to look at Cobra she just shrugged.

"You'll do." she finally said before throwing her arms around his and pressing her lips against his.

Caught off-guard, Cobra dropped his rifle as the 200 year-old woman pushed him on his back exploring his mouth with her tongue. As she did this, she removed her webbing and unzipped her vault suit. It wasn't long before Cobra clothes were also on a pile on the floor. The commander was visibly nervous as Ashley looked up and down his battle-scarred figure. With a devious smile, she licked her lips like a hungry predator. Looking down on her prey, she noticed that he was fairly well-built like her late husband. Not about to let a good meal go to waste, she put aside her memories for the feast that was yet to come.

Bending down, she began tracing the scars of his body with her tongue. The sudden contact shocked him like electricity and couldn't help but let a moan escape his lips. He couldn't resist her; how did her husband tame her? At that moment, a soft, silky hand snaked its way around to his nethers, stroking and exciting him almost immediately.

"My, my..." she said in an uncharacteristic tone with a very seductive smile, "It seems junior is enjoying himself, maybe a bit of motivation will excite him even more?"

With that, she turned so that her shapely rear was facing him. He had a clear view of her womanhood, ready for him. Accepting the invitation, he used his tongue to explore her insides, giving her a long-awaited gratification. Looking down towards her, she leaned in and began to lick his throbbing member slowly and gently. She was well-experienced in her craft, and knew most of the male erogenous zones. Although, by the way things were going, the boy was no slouch either. Moaning, she then took the member into her mouth and began to work slowly while her free hand was playing with his balls.

With her tongue dancing around the shaft, and seeing as how she didn't seem to back down from his own advances, it took every bit of him just to keep up. Cobra licked every part of her, and managed to make her moan in pleasure. She wanted this; she needed this. Worried that her cryo-hibernation may have dulled her senses, this interlude dashed those concerns. His tongue getting tired, Cobra then inserted a finger inside her and began to gently work it in and out of her. 

Ash moved off his dick and looked at him, "Harder." she demanded.

Acquiescing to her request, he then inserted another and began to move them inside her faster and harder, making her squeal. She moved back to his dick and sucked on it again, getting him wet even more, wanting it inside her and soon. She had a lust that no normal man or woman could satisfy; Nate was the only one to match her voracious appetite. If she were an evil person, she would have been an expert interrogator. No one would have been able to resist her seduction. However, she had a good heart and would never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. 

Her prey now defenseless and ready, she turned around and positioned herself above his aching cock. She lowered herself down and guided him towards her entrance. Making contact, she slid down on him, moaning in delight. Cobra also grunted in pleasure, and though he had been with a few partners himself, he felt like he was being crushed, almost like a Mirelurk claw. Ashley had him pinned, and was savoring the full feeling she had; he was just about as big as Nate. Slowly, she began to move her hips up and down on him, setting the rhythm and pace.

The commander was like mold in her fingers as she moved; he moaned as his own hips moved with her, bucking as much as he could. Leaning down, she began to lick rings around his nipples, making him moan even more. He could not believe how good she was at this, he thought he had conquered every woman, but she was in a league of her own. She was a black widow, and he was helplessly tangled up in her web. About to climax, she quickened the pace and just like clockwork, brought her partner to her climax as well. Bringing her lips down on his and squeezing down on him like a vice, they reached their explosive apex. 

"Is that all?" asking her now-unconscious quarry. She snuggled into him with a satisfied look on her face and later drifted off to sleep.

[End mature content.]

OOOOO  
The streets were full as Ashley ran down the streets as fast as she could, moving and weaving around every pedestrian she could see; it was due to her gymnastics, but she wasn't running for an award. Moving with grace, she ran past each person as tears flowed down her as she ran to the hospital. What they said couldn't be true, it just couldn't. Emergency vehicles came into sight and made their way to the building. Upon arrival, she watched as a man on a stretcher was taken into the hospital with a every manner of medical equipment attached to him.

"No..." she whispered watching the it going into the hospital.

A man came up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. Turning around to see who it was, it was Mike, one of her friends from the police. The right side of his face however was badly bruised with a rather large and bloody gash.

"Ash, your father... he confronted a group of men who were stalking you the past few days." he said in an exasperated voice. "He tried take them on, but one of them pulled a gun on him. When I came to the scene, he was already lying on the ground. I called the hospital, but he lost a lot of blood."

Ashley then ran into the hospital following the stretcher as close as she possibly could. They took the lift to the 5th floor, she followed and followed them to an operating room. She knew enough to stay outside and not interrupt. She just stared as the doctors worked; time around her seemed to slow to a maddening crawl as the doctors worked. While it felt like an eternity, she didn't notice that three hours had passed and nighttime fell. The doctors soon left the operating room and noticed her. He walked up to her and looked into the room with her.

"We repaired a lot of the trauma and gave him transfusions, but we had a very limited supply of his blood type. We have no new donors at the time, and… well... we don't know when we'll be getting any more." The doctor continued, "I'm sorry. We did what we could, but injuries like these have low odds of survival; he may not make it through the night."  
Furious at the doctor's brevity, Ash screamed, "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME THAT? You're a doctor! You're supposed to save people, not tell me that they'll die!" 

Slightly taken aback, the doctor replied, "If you like, you can be in there with him. We'll be right outside if anything happens."

Boiling with anger, she eventually calmed down enough to take the doctor's suggestion. Walking into the room, she saw what looked like her father under the tubes, wires, and bandages. His injuries were still fresh and visible; bruises, knife wounds, gunshot wounds. He had a single pack of blood hanging on his IV drip. It looked like he had enough; for a while, at least. He opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Hi, honey... I wasn't drinking this time..." he said with a weak smile, trying to ease the pained look on his daughter's face. "I heard that you... broke up with that one boy... good to hear. I heard that they were going to do terrible things to you... I couldn't allow that."

"Why? Why did you do this?" she said her tears now flowing freely.

"I'm your father... even if you may not want me to be. You're my daughter... and I'd stop anyone who would hurt my baby girl." he reached out and rubbed her chin. "I'm glad... I got to be a real father for once…"

She reached out and placed her hand on his. "You… you're such an idiot..."

"Trust me, I know... My family... has been nothing but fighters... from my father... to me... now you. Don't give up... never give up... Ashley." His words were getting harder to make out. 

"I should tell you... the truth... on why I started drinking. It wasn't... all... because of your mother. Your mother... leaving... was hard... but when I got word... that Jones... one of my brothers in arms... died... making me... the last... of my unit... I felt... so alone... since everyone... had left me. I was... such a fool... that I forgot... all about you. You are my legacy… you are my unit... you are my team..." his breathing becoming more shallow. "I love you."

"Dad… I love you too." she said in between sobs.

"Thanks… kiddo. Hey, I'm... a little tired, now. I'm going to... take a short nap. Will you be here... when I wake up?"

Ashley nodded with a sad smile, and pulled up a chair next to him.

With that, he smiled and closed his eyes. She didn't know how long she stayed, but she stayed with him, hoping he'd wake up again. Now that he was sober, maybe he could rejoin the workforce and perhaps rebuild their relationship; a clean slate. But her wishes were betrayed by the sound of a long and steady tone on his heart monitor. Hearing this, the doctors rushed in and tried to resuscitate him to no avail. Exhausting every possible effort and with no other options left, they pulled a sheet over him, hiding him away from the rest of the world.  
"Miss…" The same doctor, unable to gather the words, "Take all the time you need." With that, the doctor stepped out of the room; only her and her dad.

She took his hand into hers. His hand was limp but she wasn't going to let go. No need to hold her emotions back anymore, she let it all out. She couldn't let go, not now not ever. She just couldn't. But something cold was in her hand, not her father's hand but something metallic. She opened her hand to see his old military dog tags. Turning them around, she then saw a picture of her younger self sitting on her father's lap, both smiling.

A last gift from his to her; his undying love.

OOOOO

A group of boys, around the age of 18, were standing around in an old warehouse watching a TV they stole. Each one of them wore a black leather jacket with the word 'Yellow Jackets' with a Yellow Jacket Bee below it. There were 6 of them in total, all of them watching what people would call a 'psycho' movie. Somehow finding amusement in the pain and suffering of others. Even the boss, a guy with a mohawk, was laughing hysterically.

"So, boss, you know that bitch who dumped you?" one of the boys asked.

"Yeah?" the boss said back.

"Well, me and a couple of the boys were planning to fuck-her-up for ya, ya know, for dumping you. Anyway some old guy attacked us, turns out it was the bitch's dad… Hahaha! what a loser. Anyway we roughed him up good." As he spoke there was chuckling from the other members. "I thought that we could send her a message saying that 'we're coming for you, whore.'"

They all laughed out loud before the door to the warehouse opened and a female figure came walking in.

"Hey, baby, what are you doing here? Wanna have some fun?" one of the boys asked, running up to the figure. With the sun behind her, he didn't recognize the slim figure.

With an unexpectedly swift movement, she took his arm and threw him over her shoulder and onto the ground before smashing her foot down on his arm, breaking it. The boy let out an undignified scream as whoever it was also stomped on the boy's 'jewels'.

"Have fun without it." said a familiar voice.

She stepped out of the light and came into view, showing the boys that she was not in the best of moods.

"Hey, look who the..." of them tried to say but was cut short when a golf ball met his own balls.

"You bitch!" yelled the boss. "I was going to let you come back, but forget it, you're DEAD!"

"Fuck you all." she said.

"Guess I gotta teach your old man another lesson about teaching his child manne..." the gang member shut right right up as he was greeted with another golf ball.

She walked up to them slowly with fire in her eyes. The kind of fire that meant revenge, the kind that told them that she was willing to die just to bring the whole world crashing down on them. They've never seen anything like this until now, and quite frankly, it was very disconcerting.

"Come on, afraid of a fair fight?" she asked, as one of them came running at her with a knife.

He took a swipe at her, but she was faster; she took his arm and broke it over her knee like someone would break a tree branch. The first attacker now a screaming mess on the ground, two more came running up, both of them brandishing tie irons. The first one took a swing at her head while the other tried to get her legs. She dove through them and kicked them both with enough force to break their shins, reducing them to piles on the ground. Two more tried to rush her this time, both of them brandishing machetes. She may have been quick, but they had the reach. They managed to cut her arm and her thigh, but the cuts were shallow. Completely taken by rage and adrenaline, she ignored the injuries and put her gymnastic flexibility to use. She launched herself into a handstand and kicked both their knives out of their hands. Without their reach advantage, she jumped back up and kicked them both in the face, knocking them out and breaking their jaws.

Getting back on her feet, she looked back to her ex. "You killed my dad. You deserve much worse, but you and your cheerleaders are going to prison."

Intimidated by her performance but clearly furious, he replied, "Go ahead and try it, whore! I'm not going anywhere!" With that, he charged at her.

OOOOO

Ash was sitting in the backseat of one of a patrol car, sipping on a Nuka-Cola. Paramedics were administering first-aid to the thugs and the police were taking down names and identification. The police knew what happened and didn't think twice about it. However, no matter how justified she may have been, it was still vigilante action outside the law. Given the circumstances, though, she'd be on probation or put under police observation, at worst. She was in custody, since she did start the fight and drew a sizeable crowd. One of the members crowd slipped past the police tape and tried to confront Ashley about the incident.

"YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU HURT MY SON LIKE THIS!" she yelled.

"How dare I?" Ash asked with an exasperated sigh. "How dare you let your son get away with murder?"

The woman had no response as a bandaged Mike held her back and escorted her back behind the tape. Meanwhile, Ash continued to drink her soda.

"It's sweet."

OOOOO

Ashley yawned as she awoke, looking down next to her, only to see Cobra also lying there with last night's events coming back to her. Out in the cold, unforgiving air, and slaying bodies, she allowed herself a small satisfied smile as Cobra awoke as well.

"Morni-" he started to say before notice something he didn't before.

She looked to him with wide eyes and smiled. "Like what you see?" she asked seductively.

Cobra reached out and touched her cheek with his finger, there was a scar, a deep cut that was there that wasn't before. She knew where he was touching and quickly pulled her pistol out to use the gunmetal as a makeshift mirror. Granted it wasn't a good mirror, but she could still see it, that mark, that scar... where he... she shook her head, no, that bastard was dead. He had to be! Without a word, she put her clothes back on while Cobra awkwardly put on his own.

Concerned, he looked to her and asked, "What is it? That mark on your cheek."

"Shut up." she said, dropping to the lower level and walking back into the police station.

'What's with her?' he asked himself.

OOOOO

Following the road to the Arcjet facility Danse was leading the way, his Brotherhood training was fine-tuned for combat in the wasteland. Cobra was bringing up the rear keeping an eye on their back. Looking to see if Ashley was out of earshot he took out a handheld radio and called.

"Juliet Oscar Echo-One, come in." he said as Preston fell back as well.

"What's up?" he asked.

"It's Ashley. During her sleep she was muttering something about her dad, and this morning. She's got a scar on her cheek that we didn't see before." he said making the Minuteman's brow raise. "She kept muttering something to herself that 'he's dead'."

"Cobra Charlie-One, come in, Joe here." Joe said over the radio.

"Joe, listen, back in the day, before the war, did Ashley have a scar on her cheek? It looks like a knife wound of some kind." Cobra said down the device.

"What? No... I've never seen her with a scar of any kind... on the cheek you said? She must have been using a lot of makeup to hide it." Joe replied before pausing for a moment. "Wait... Nate might have something about it... yeah, he said that during the war, she was captured by a Chinese Naval Captain named Zao... she never talked about it. It's probably him, but tread carefully and don't assume anything."

"Ok, well, what about her father? She was muttering 'dad' in her sleep." Preston spoke up.

"Ahhh, that. That's really no one's business but her own. But I will tell you that he never got to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. Take my advice, don't bring it up again." Joe said before the transmission cut out.

With more questions instead of answers, the two looked at each other before catching up to the rest of the gang.

OOOOO

The group made it to Arcjet systems but it looked like someone already fought through it. The security Protectrons were broken and scattered, but there was very little collateral damage. Everything else seemed relatively intact. Paladin Danse took point with his laser rifle at the ready and assessed the situation.

"Be on guard. Whoever went through here were either professionals or Institute synths."

Ashley chimed in, "How can you tell? Couldn't it be raiders?"

Keeping his weapon pointed, "Raiders in this area aren't nearly well-organized enough to mount an assault this compound, especially against posted security robots and sentry turrets. Also, there is not a single drop of blood from the firefight, and judging from the damage, they weren't here for the scraps. No, something far more dangerous is at work here, so watch your sectors."

"Got it. Dogmeat, quiet, boy." Ashley motioned to the canine with her hand.

Impressed by his observational skills, Ashley readied her weapon and watched carefully for anything out of the ordinary. Preston cranked his laser musket to full charge and Cobra loaded a full magazine into his combat shotgun. Codsworth primed his flamer while Dogmeat obediently followed the orders of his master. There was a bad vibe to this place, and they cautiously advanced deeper into the facilities. Eventually, Danse came to what looked like a control centre and the party found themselves behind a locked door.

"The security sensors must have locked the place down. Look for a terminal that can override it."

Cobra and Dogmeat stood guard while the others looked for a working computer. Most of them lost power or were just smashed through, but to Ashley's relief, she found one that still worked.

"I found one! Hey, this is the new RobCo Industries TermLink; I didn't think they'd ever upgrade to the new OS."

Preston gave an excited Ashley a puzzled look, "New?"

"Er, never mind." Remembering that she was 200 years into the future, this new terminal was literally an artifact of a bygone era. 

"Can you hack the security?" Danse asked, impatiently.

"Yeah, just give me a second." RobCo Industries was top-ranked among consumers for their reliability and nearly indestructible hardware, but their software was years behind the competition. As an engineer, decoding their encryption algorithms was a matter of child's play. Ironically, it was also the standard operating system for all military hardware. "We're through." The door in front of Danse unlocked and he started to make his way forward.

"Let's go."

" Danse, wait!" The power armoured soldier stopped, but he wasn't accustomed to following the orders of outsiders.  
"What is it, citizen?"

"As I was checking the security logs at the terminal, I noticed that the automated defenses are part of the security protocols."

"Aren't they they same?" Danse asked, clearly confused.

"Security protocols are meant to prevent data loss and infiltration; automated defenses fall under a defense contract. Normally, security and automated turrets run on separate networks to prevent workplace 'accidents', but runtimes show that there was communication between the networks recently, so whoever connected them might still be here."

Immediately after, a robotic voice alerted everyone to the its source, "MOTION SENSORS DETECT MOVEMENT." A seemingly nude figure came into view and aimed its weapon at the intruders, but the paladin fired first with a well-placed shot to the head with his laser rifle. However, instead of dropping to the floor, its face peeled off, revealing a metallic endoskeleton. Confirming his suspicions, Danse ordered everyone to fire at will.

"WEAPONS FREE! OPEN FIRE!"  
The mysterious figure fired at Danse with a few bright blue beams from its laser rifle, but it was outnumbered and fell quickly to focused and sustained weapons fire. With the immediate threat eliminated with no reinforcements, everyone stood down and assessed the situation.

"What the hell was THAT?" A surprised Ash exclaimed.

"It's as I suspected." Danse remarked, upon inspecting the mangled remains, "THAT, was an Institute synth. The artificial skin weave and endoskeleton indicates that this one is an older model."

Preston picked up the laser rifle it was wielding and inspected it. "What is this weapon? I've never seen an energy weapon like this."

"It's the Institute's version of the laser rifle. It fires high-frequency lasers utilizing more efficient energy capacitors, making their shots more powerful and more frequent. In short, it's better than our own laser rifles."

"Danse, does the Brotherhood have a stockpile of these weapons?" Cobra asked.

"Yes. We give them to our scribes for analysis in an effort to understand the technology and perhaps upgrade our own. Why?"

"My group and I have vastly disparate philosophies from the other Gunners, so we're often undermanned and under-equipped; these energy weapons might give my team a fighting chance at the very least. We butt heads with the other cells on occasion, but some would like nothing more than to see us gone."

With a hard expression, "That's acceptable. You can salvage what weapons you need, just as long as you don't interfere with the mission." Danse moved up to a hall but was stopped again by Ash with a hand signal. Growing impatient with her, he stopped but cautiously peeked around the corner. He heard the unmistakable whirring of machinery as he faced a turret quickly taking aim at him. Suddenly understanding her advice, he ducked back behind the corner with the others.

"Careful!" she warned. "Arcjet systems had contracts with the USSA, meaning military-grade hardware, and as you just saw, automated turrets."

"But if that's the case, why didn't it take out the synths?" Preston asked.

"The runtimes show that the systems have been down for centuries and have been brought back online only recently, including the automated defenses. It's likely these 'synths' were behind it."

Danse was grateful for the new intel, but to say he was suspicious of this new outsider was a monumental understatement. It wasn't normal for her or anyone to be so well-versed in the old technologies; she knew even more than the senior scribes in the Brotherhood. She pulled back the bolt on her rifle and moved to the opposite side of the hall, firing at the turrets and taking out one of them. Putting herself in the line of sight of the turrets and drawing fire, Danse and Preston popped around the corner and neutralized the remaining turrets. Feeling a dull ache in her arm, she saw she had drawn turret fire a little too well; a few rounds were embedded in her forearm with no exit wound. "Just great, I'll have to dig those out later". Bandaging her arm to staunch the bleeding, she joined the rest of the group and proceeded to head deeper into the facility.

The group then moved into a control room with a clear view of the rocket out in front of them. There was no contacts yet but as they moved inside Codsworth alerted them.

"Mum, this may not be an immediate concern, but my sensors are detecting a radiation spike in the air. I wouldn't recommend going outside." he said.

"Radiation storm." Preston added. "I'm with Codsworth, on that. Those can be really nasty; we should stay indoors until it blows over."

"Agreed." Danse said as Ashley looked through the window down at the scorched floor a few levels down.

"Five hostiles below. Seem unaware." she said.

Danse confirmed the threat with Ashley and proposed a plan of attack: "I'll jump down into the thick of them and draw their fire. The rest of you can take the staircase down and flank them while they're focused on me. Don't worry about hitting me; my suit will protect me, so just take them down before they can fire back. Ashley, you stay put; you're wounded and if you involve yourself, you'll become a liability."

"Excuse me?" a slightly-offended woman asked.

Before she could continue, Preston stopped her, "He's right. You can barely hold anything in that arm, and a stray shot can be more dangerous than an aimed one. Besides, we can't let you have all the glory."

Preston shot her a smirk, and as much as she wouldn't admit it, they were 100% right. The bullets in her arm were weighing it down and making it hard to hold anything. With a resigned sigh, she retired herself from the attack.

On the paladin's mark, he jumped down what looked like a hundred feet and crushed one upon landing, taking the synthetic gunmen by surprise. As they readied and aimed their weapons, Preston scrapped one with a fully-charged shot. Cobra took down two more with well-placed shots from his combat rifle. As the last synth was about to fire its weapon at its attackers, it found a giant metal hand grab its head before it was crushed like a tin can. Ash, Dogmeat and Codsworth came down to join them in what looked like a testing chamber, hoping to be done with this miserable place.

Taking the lead in the search, Ashley "Spread out. There should be a deep range transmitter in the control room. It looks like a radio, so it shouldn't be too hard to spot."

Once again, Danse took suspicion to her knowledge, but his questions would wait until after the mission. He still had a bad feeling about this place. If the Institute's goal was to salvage technology from this place, why would they send their older models? It didn't add up. The few they took out looked like posted sentries. Unless-

"I can't find anything that looks like a radio in here. Just broken computers and telephones. Are you sure we're supposed to find-"  
Cobra stopped mid sentence to see a giant suit of armour block the doorway.

"What are you doing?"

"Ambush." Danse whispered, and the silence was maddening.

Cobra looked up to see what he was referring to, and the colour immediately drained from his face. A sizeable swarm of synthetic soldiers gathered from above and surrounded the team from every angle. Weapons were readied and aimed, and Danse wasted no time in firing his laser rifle at the robotic abominations and neither did they.

"AMBUSH!" Both subtlety and the element of surprise were lost, and a battle for attrition was in full-swing. Preston fired his laser rifle with every opportunity he could and tried to make every shot count. It was a powerful weapon, but the crank was slow to charge and the enemy didn't seem like the kind to wait. Cobra's shotgun was best suited for close quarters and massed targets, but he could count how many shots he had left. Codsworth and Dogmeat tore down any that would try to get close. With an almost begrudging sense of respect, Danse was grateful an artificial intelligence was fighting with him, especially when it could cut a synthetic clean in half and burn it down.

The ground was now littered with scrap metal and synthetic bodies, and if Ashley didn't do anything, organic bodies would soon join them. She hated feeling helpless. She definitely wasn't a damsel in distress, and she sure as hell wouldn't start today. She couldn't hold a weapons, but there had to be something she could do! Finding a terminal that hadn't degraded over the centuries, she discovered that this was a testing chamber for rockets, as if the giant rocket hanging from the ceiling wasn't obvious enough. The control room she was in held the controls to the rocket, and if the military hardware hadn't changed over the course of the war, the controls should still be working. Tapping away at the console, she prayed her plan would work.

"RobCo, don't fail me now…"

Seconds later, the rocket began its pre-burn and ignition sparks were flying everywhere. All she had to do was press the ignition button and melt every metalhead in the room.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" 

Hearing the woman's orders, the others began to fall back to the control room. Not sure of the tactical decision, but any plan had to be better than standing in the middle of laser fire.

A synthesized voice rang over the speaker system: "Rocket test burn in 15 seconds."

Dogmeat was first, obeying his master without a second thought. Cobra was next, his combat shotgun on its last magazine and armour nearly scarred beyond repair. Codsworth was third, his chassis still intact, almost as a testament to General Atomics. Preston followed soon after; his greatcoat singed and torn on every spot with his laser musket smoking at the barrel and gearbox from overuse. Paladin Danse was supposed to be next, but the blast door slammed shut before he could make it to safety. 

"Rocket test firing." 

"NO!" A horrified Ashley exclaimed. The room he was in burned bright with solid rocket fuel, blinding everyone behind the safety bunker. The rocket's booster had incinerated everything in the room, synth and power armour alike. With a heavy heart, Ash sat back down at the terminal and did the only thing she could do; wait.

After the rocket had finished its test burn, the blast door unlocked and opened. Ashley and the rest stepped out to inspect the remains and see if anything was salvageable. Most of everything was glowing red or a pile of molten metal and ash. Sifting through the smoking scraps, Ashley found a synth that was holding a large rectangular box. It was the deep range transmitter that the group had set out to find. Engineered to withstand atmospheric re-entry, it survived the inferno. 

 

"Alright, we have what we came here for. Let's get back to Cambridge Police Station. Cosworth, is the storm still out there?"

"No, mum. My atmospheric sensors no longer detect any lingering radiation."

As everyone was about to head back up to the surface, something started to rise up from a pile of broken synths. Everyone readied their weapon, but instead of a robot, it was Danse, though he was looking a little more toasty than usual. He lumbered up to the group and gave his assessment.

"Nice thinking with the rocket booster, outsider. If it weren't for your quick thinking, we probably wouldn't be alive to finish the mission. My armour withstood the blast, so my injuries are only superficial."

"Paladin Danse! We have the deep range transmitter."

"Good job, soldier." he said before falling unconscious.

OOOOO

An elderly man sat at his desk in his room as someone in a white and black lab coat entered to deliver the news.

"Father." he said in an exhausted voice. "Our units at Arcjet systems just went silent."

"What images did the our surveillance units capture?" Father asked.

"A group of six, one female wearing a vault suit, two mercs, one of them wearing Gunner combat armour, a dog, a Mr. handy robot, and a power armoured soldier with the Brotherhood of Steel."

"A female Vault dweller..." a subtle grin grew across the man's face. "Get our agent to the military base and tell him to standby until further orders. Arcjet systems was an acceptable loss."

OOOOO

Danse was lying on a makeshift cot, still unconscious from the mission. Cobra considered Danse fortunate that he was even able to survive, and that a certain engineer was able to take him out of his suit; they would have had to drag him all the way back to Cambridge otherwise. There was a lot of carbon buildup from the last fight, and he used this downtime to clean and maintain his weapons. Preston, meanwhile, was sitting sitting in a chair with his hat on his face, catching up on some much-needed sleep. Dogmeat was chewing on a mole rat leg that Ash had found while Codsworth had shut down to recharged his batteries.

Ash, meanwhile, came in carrying an intact synth with a toolbox in tow. Dropping them on the floor with a loud crash and startling a certain Minuteman.

"Wah!" he muttered only to see Ash unzip her suit.

She stopped around midway and tied the sleeves around her waist. Putting on a set of welding goggles, she took out a blowtorch and tried to pry open the synth's endoskeleton.

"Wake a Deathclaw nest why don't ya." Preston said.

"Sorry, I just wanted to see the engineering on this. I've never seen anything like this-" she said in a mildly excited voice.

"What do you hope to learn from that death machine?" Danse asked as he woke and sat up surprising the Sword star merc.

"Whoa, geez man don't do that." he moaned.

Danse just ignored him and looked at Ashley. "So, miss Williams right?" he asked making her look up.

"It's Winter." she said.

The Brotherhood corrected himself. "Sorry, I once knew a woman who called herself Ashley as well, but she was following a group lead by a man or woman named Shepard, ugh I cannot remember. Anyway that was some good thinking, I can assume you've done this before?"

"Something like it, yeah, but last time I worked on a T-60, I was in it defending an oil rig from Chinese special force.." she said slightly smugly.

"Interesting, were they ghouls?"

"No, this was the Battle of Anchorage, year 2066"

Danse gave her a VERY skeptical look. "Impossible. That was over two-hundred years ago, Unless you're a ghoul, how can you be alive for that long?"

"Vault-Tec was experimenting with cryo-hibernation." Ash said before looking down at the machine. "I only just woke up, and now I'm out here looking for my son."

"I see." Danse knew some vaults were little more than control groups for Vault-Tec's experiments, and her explanation made more sense than he was willing to admit.

"Well, it's one of many reasons why we're out here." Preston said. "We're heading to Diamond City, and with a city with that many people, we're bound to find some answers."

The Brotherhood soldier nodded. "Alright. Now that the police station has its transmitter, I am going to come along to assess your performance. I haven't met an outsider as resourceful as yourself, and you'd make a fine member of the Brotherhood."

"Sure. Your power armour would also make a fine asset to my team." Ash retorted with an unsteady smile.


	5. Chapter 5 Mechanical Menace

The Cambridge Police station was bustling with activity while Danse was in recovery. Ashley was examining the makeup of the synth she salvaged from ArcJet. The engineer in her was as giddy as a schoolgirl; eager at the prospect of understanding this new technology. As an engineer before the war, she dreamed of creating new technologies to aid the less fortunate. Her last project was on AI technology; in hindsight, it was probably how she was drafted into the war. What she found was more than intriguing.

The technology was surprisingly basic. The intelligence ran on simple programs and subroutines, and the hardware, while a product of its time, was familiar. What surprised her most was that she designed them; CIT took her program and gave it to military contracts. She couldn't help but smile at the cruel irony.

Just then, the sound of gunfire sounded outside broke her out of her nostalgia. Cobra opened fire on a group of ghouls heading towards them. They fell one by one, with well-placed shots from his combat rifle. Preston was also firing into the swarm with the Institute laser rifle he recovered earlier. His laser musket was powerful, but it couldn't fire in rapid succession. Moaning, she turned back to the machine in front of her before looking up seeing the power armour in front of her.

That fall back at Arcjet crossed her mind. She did all she could for the synth yet her hands were still twitching, a tell-tail sign she was in a mode where she needed to do something involving machines. Picking up her tools she walked over to the suit and she began looking over it. It was well maintained which she was surprised about. But there was some clear stress fractures cross the legs and frame. It Danse was going to use this again then it wouldn't be long until it would fall apart.

But either way it was an easy fix, and simply modified for greater support... if she had the right equipment and tools. Looking around if she used the equipment around her she could get it fixed. She smiled, as all he idea's for modifications came to mind. As she worked the Botherhood scribe came down and saw what Ashley was doing.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Fixing you're friends power armour.” she said not looking at the scribe. “Now before you say anything, if I don't get this thing fixed he'll be of use to no one.”

“But why are you doing it?” she asked.

“When I get working on machines' I just cannot stop. I just need to get busy on something,” a aura around her made the Scribe feel a little off as she backed up a bit. 

“Ok but what do you know about power armour?” 

“I was an engineer during the war, the one against the Chinese. After I got my frigging Law degree. Life never plays fair, but that's why it's called life.”

“Wait the war? You mean Anchorage?”

“That's the one.” she stopped and looked down to the floor remembering everything that happened up there. “Seems like a whole another life ago, great now I feel old.” 

“But the Anchorage war was over 200 years ago.....” she muttered.

“Yep I'm about 227 years old, but I'm not, repeat not including the 200 years onto my age.” Ashley said determined not to be older the she already is, she turned to the scribe with a bit of a smile on her face. “I was in cryo for over 200 years.”

“Cryo? Let me guess Vault-tec?” the scribe said earning a nod from the sole survivor.

“Damn right about that.” just then images of when Shaun was taken from the pod came to mind, she rubbed her forehead absent mindedly feeling a headache coming on. “It's one of the reason's why I'm trying to get to Diamond city as soon as possible..... please I need to be alone.” she said turning back to the power armour. 

Feeling an aura about her the Scribe walked back up the stairs. Danse had told her what had happened in the Vault, so she didn't want to force anymore out of her. Outside Cobra had stripped his assault rifle and began to clean it while Preston was keeping an eye out. 

“Pres,” Cobra said getting the Minute-man's attention. “This Castle of yours, whe... no if we ever get round to it, would your group have a problem with my group taking up residence as well?” 

Preston shook his head. “I doubt it, granted one of two may have some problems with your group. But we've had our fair share of refugees.” 

“Fair enough.” Cobra muttered. 

OOOOO Sanctuary.

Hawk and Joe were taking inventory on their stockpiles of weapons, food, and other supplies. They estimated about a month's worth, or at least until the traders came. Kai was being treated by the bald woman named Spider, who could be called the medic of Cobra's little band. But she was an absolute bitch given the fact that she hated practically everyone. She cut into the laser burn wound with a knife making the soldier scream in pain.

"Spider, will you cut it out?" Joe yelled. "I'm trying to do inventory."

"Yeah, fine, freak." was all she said.

Hawk then looked up and around. He grabbed his rifle and looked around as he cocked the weapon. Joe stood with pistol in hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

But Hawk said nothing, because he couldn't. Rising his gun and looking down the scope. The air fell still, as they could feel the earth moving. Just then...

"TIME TO DIE, FUCKER!" someone yelled and Hawk fired at one of the roofs.

And explosion of blood and grey matter showered the house. Then more came, raiders came wielding pipe weapons and makeshift melee weapons.

"SPIDER, GET THE CIVVIES OUT OF HERE." Joe yelled as he fired his pistol.

From the side of the village a Raider holding a pipe sniper rifle took a position on a roof and took aim. Joe and Hawk took cover behind car as the Spider, Kai and civilians heading into the wood. The sniper took aim at the Ghoul with a smile on his face, steadying his aim as his friends engaged them. In his sights the air almost froze as he pulled the trigger. A .308 round flew through the air and hit Joe in the head. Being a hollow point round, the side of his head became mush as she fell down dead. Hawk looked at him with wide eyes before a round pierced through the car he was taking cover in and hit him in the side. 

He grunted before switching his weapon to automatic and fired at the oncoming raiders, he had no chance and he knew it. But his instincts told him to fight till death. From behind several skeletal machines saw and heard the fighting and began to move into the village. Hawk's last stand forced him into a retreat into the wood. But what he didn't notice a grenade that was thrown from one of the Raiders. It exploded next to him, however it was in the water and made him wet when it exploded. In the water however a large stone hit him in the head knocking him out leaving him at the raider's mercy as they began to advance. 

All in all there was about 15 Riders in total, here to plunder pillage and rape anything they could get their hands on. But behind them a squad of 8 skeletal machines walked into the village armed with white laser weapons. 

“Target aquired.” one of them said. 

Fresh water was splashed on Hawk's face making him sit up bolt upright and look around seeing Stuggs and the married couple drag Raider bodies into the middle of the street. Looking to his side Spider looked at him with a concerned face.

“You ok?” she asked uncharacteristicly. 

“Yeah, I'm fine.” he said standing up. “Wha...what happened?” 

Spider stood up behind him and looked around. “I have no clue we need to call the Commander and now.”

Hawk nodded and picked up his radio. “Hotel-one calling Cobra Charlie-one, do you read?”

“Cobra Charlie one here what's up Hawk?” Cobra said over the radio.

“We've been attacked we need you back here now.”

OOOOO

The group looked around at the dead bodies of the Raiders. Since they wore leather armour it did little for guns. Hawk and Spider worked on getting the bodies into a rows so that they could take what they need from them. But Ashley wasn't talking neither was Cobra as they looked at Joe's dead body. She couldn't hold back her tears as she cried into Cobra's chest. Putting his arm around her, he held her tight, he knew loss just like her. But he had learned to contain it, and become emotionless.

Danse just stood nearby looking at the two of them. "Why cry over a freak?" he asked.

"That, 'freak'." Preston said as he walked passed. "was her old boss and friend."

The powered armoured soldier looked at the Minute man before looking at the two who stood before him. Shaking his head he then walked off muttering something to himself.

After letting her emotions run wild for a few moments Ashley regained control over her emotions and pulled herself together. Moving away from Cobra she looked around, closing her eyes she breathed in and looked around. As she looked she could see her home again, before the bombs. The area looked like it was still not moving, then she remembered there was an APC in the area before the bomb fell.

The area then changed to the devastated area it now was.

"Danse!" she called out as she walked over to the power she left. "I'm gonna need your help." she called.

As the powered armoured soldier followed her Cobra looked at the Raiders. Something was off about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it. While they look like Raider's at the same time they didn't. The armour they wore was odd, while wearing metal armour wasn't uncommon using Robot armour wasn't seen often, especially Raiders. 

“Hey Pres.” he called the Minute-man

The trench-coat wearing merc walked up and stood next to the Sword star commander. 

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Don't these guy's look odd?” 

Preston looked at the Raiders, opening his mouth for a moment he closed it again before speaking. 

“Their wearing Robot armour.” he muttered. 

“Yeah, but why? Raider's don't ware this kind of stuff.”

OOOOO

At a remote location of the Commonwealth, a group of Minute-men walked down a street with supplies in hand. There where four in all each one with a laser musket in hand and a brahmen with packs on them filled with supplies. As they walked the leader stopped in her tracks and looked around, as did the other's. There was a mechanical whine, suddenly a robot jumped out but this one was unlike any robot they had seen before. It's torso was that of a Mr handy model with legs of a protectron. One of it's arms was shaped like an assultron but with a laser for a hand and a clamp for a hand on the other arm. 

It charged at them but before it could all of the team fired at it. Each of the lances hit cabling on the machine sending it to the floor. Suddenly two more machines came out, each one looking like they had been made from different robots. These ones jumped at them. 

OOOOO

A power suited Ashley with Danse pushed a broken APC into the streets of Sanctuary. It was heavy but since the two had power armour it was easier but still took a long time to move. As soon as it was in the middle of the street Ash got out of her power armour, picked up tool kit and began to work stripping the machine down with help from Sturges. But as soon as they started Preston's radio came on. 

“Preston... problem... encountered machines..... robots... look like.... made from other's..... please advise.”

“Say again robots? Institute?” Preston asked.

“Negative, negative.... normal robot's like....the ones you see..... outside..... but mixed.”

There was a lot of static with the channel but he could make out what they where saying. But what they where saying was odd, completely strange. Robots..... mixed robots? All of a sudden Cobra then stated talking into his own radio.

“Echo seven calling Cobra Charlie-one come in!” it said. 

“Cobra Charlie-one here Echo seven, what's wrong?” Corba said. 

“Cobra listen we where just attacked by some strange robots. Not institute, I repeat not institute!” the man yelled. “They look like some kind of cross between several different robot's.”

The two looked to each other with a knowing look. They had both received communications from their respective groups, strange robots walking around and attacking people. This was no coincidence. As Ashley worked on the APC her pip-boy activated picking up a distress signal, she turned her radio and listened to the message. 

“This is an emergency broadcast. Our caravan is under attack by hostile robots. And need some serious help. We're just east of Wattz Consumer Electronics. Anyone in the vicinity can come help, now is the time.

Ada, loop this message.  
-Yes, sir.”

“Guy's?” she said looking to the two mercs.

“We got word from our own groups about some hostile robots too.” Cobra said looking at her. 

“Best we go and see what the matter is.” Codsworth said coming up. “We may have the wrong message about these robot's but it does no harm to check.” 

“Agreed.” Ashley said standing and walking over to the Raiders. “But I have to change my armour.” she muttered, you guys get ready.” 

With that she took off her webbing and began looking at the armour of the Raiders. She needed something light, something with enough space to carry her equipment. As she did this Cobra and Preston began looking though the Vault's boxes for ammo medical equipment and food. Danse decided to help the as he had nothing better to do and began to help them selecting stuff to take. Ash knelt down next to one of the raiders who had a metal chest plate on. It was slightly rusted but had a leather belt around it with large pockets, it also had a backpack. Nodding her head she took it off him, after checking the pockets she found a stimpack and 12 .44 rounds before putting it on. 

It settled nicely over her chest and wast. The padding on the inside was a mix of cloth and leather making it very comfortable. Looking to another one she saw leather armour on her arm's and legs. She moved over to the body and looked at it, the woman was clearly of Asian decent and was about her side. Despite the metal armour the woman wore, the problem was the fact that they looked too bulky. Her mouth curled slightly, the armour didn't look like it could stop much but allowed for manoeuvrability, and given the size. 

She took off the leather leg armour and looked at it. It was in three pieces thigh knee and shin, and the thigh had a pistol holster with two large pouches on either side of it. Nodding the them slide the armour onto her left leg, fastening it tightly before taking off the other leather leg armour and put that on. On the end one she saw the Raider had metal armour arm, it was on the left side. The shoulder pad pointed out while the lower arm had a blade attached to the lower sleeve. Shrugging she took it off and then took off the lower metal section that wasn't connected to the blade before putting it on. 

The blade was then under her pip-boy. She waved it around making her simile, if those bastards would get close then she'd chop then in half. Getting quite a bit of stuff together the three guys began to put it in their pouches or pockets. As they did Ashley walked up to them. 

“Hey guy's.” she said grabbing their attention. “You think this armour will help?”

The three turned to face her and they dropped whatever they where holding. Ashley stood in front of the wearing her new armour, it hung on her as it was made for her. The metal armour fit her hour glass figure along with the leather armour showing off her just-right plump thighs. She looked unbelievable, the perfect mix of beauty and danger. 

“I..err I...” Preston muttered. 

“Yeah, I think it suits you.” Cobra said. 

Danse said nothing as he just stared at her. 

“Ok then, let's get moving.” she said. “Meet you at the bridge.”

She made her way to the bridge with a small smile on her face, as the shock began to ware off the three picked up the items they dropped before following them. Preston however walked over to Hawk. 

“Hawk right?” he asked earning a nod from the Sword star merc. “I think it might be best if you and the other take shelter in the Vault. Stay there until we get back, code is 457.”

“Right just need to get the salvage from the raiders first.” he said. 

“Ok, just make it quick.” he said before following the other two. 

OOOOO

As the sun began to set in the distance the team of six made they way as fast as they could across the countryside to Watts consumer electronics. Ash knew where it was thanks to the signal finder feature on her pip-boy. She wasn't even tired as she ran through the countryside, all those years in the gym taught her how to manage her body. As they moved they saw a broken-down highway in the distance just about half a mile out. It was close and they could reach it in no time. As they approached they could see red and yellow flashes. 

“DOGMEAT GO!” she yelled. 

The German Shepard then moved up fast barking as he went up. Preston moved off to the side to get a good vantage point while Ash switched her weapon from auto to semi auto. As they got close they could then see four machines that looked like they where made from junk where attacking a blue assaulttron who had a sentry-bot chaingun. With the way things looked the blue machine was protecting a make shift camp. It was the thing they need to be protecting. 

“Protect the assulttron.” Ash said as she took aim and fired a rejected protecton model.

Cobra moved up with a combat shotgun in hand and began to tangle with a yellow boxed robot. Dogmeat didn't know what to do, so decide to distract one of the machines taking hold of it's leg. The machine it held had legs of a protection yet it's torso was a Mr handy, it looked down at the dog but before could do anything a red beam hit one of it's eyes causing it to lose sight. Danse charged in sending the machine flying into a car. Ashley milked her trigger slowly hitting a hovering robot who was attacking Cobra. 

Preston cranked his laser musket and fired again and again. The robot he was aiming at then fell down as did another then another until only one was left. The blue one. Ashley walked up to it before stooping eyes wide as she looked at the machine in front of her. This was a mix of several different machines and her eyes where engorging of the feast in front of her. Her mind buzzed as she could only imagine the mind who managed to do this. 

“My friends...died in the attack. Thank you for assisting. I was certain to meet my end here as well.” it asid in a femle voice. 

Ashley just stared at the machine. “May I see how you work?” she asked before a sharp slap at the back of the head taking her out of her fantasy world. 

“Sorry about that, I don't know why she did that. Are you ok?” Cobra asked standing next to the sole survivor. 

“Physically, the damage is minor, but I am registering sadness and anger at the loss of my friends. It may sound strange coming from a robot but they where my.... family. Again, I thank you for your efforts. I know they would have thanked you as well.” as the assuilttron said that Preston and Danse where looking over one of the robots. 

“I'm sorry for your loss.” Ashley said circling the robot. 

“My name is Ada. This was the third time this we where attacked by robots like these. Even with the weapon detection upgrades Jackson gave me, I was unable to defend them.” 

“Third time?” Cobra asked with his brow raised. 

“There must be a reason why they are targeting you.” Ashley said stopping in front of Ada. 

“Probability is high that I'm part of the reason. Besides myself Jackson made Turing, Hurtz and Porter. Our in build modifications would be desired pieces of salvage. We knew we ran the risk of encountering more of these hostile robots in we stayed in the Commonwealth. If only we made the decision to leave.”

Ashley shook her head. “You couldn't have known something like this will happen.”

“The probability of attack was high. I should have forced our departure. In recompense I will seek justice for my friends and stop these robots from causing more harm. It's time to uncover the source and confornt their leader: the Mechanist.” 

“The Mechanist?” both Ash and Cobra said with Ashley's eyes sparkling while the merc looked at Ada with brow raised. 

“What kind of name is that?” Cobra asked. 

“He sounds so badass.” Ashley said dreamily.

Cobr looked at her before looking at Ada. “You'll need help if you want to succeed.” 

“I'm aware of this. You and your tea have sown willingness to aid others. I ask that you and the other's please assist me in stopping this Mechanist.”

“You got me to count on.” Cobra said. 

“I get to meet a her called the mechanist?” Ashley said like a giddy teenager. “I'm so in.”

“Sounds like an interesting job.” Dnase said walking up. “I'm in.”

“These robot's are threatening the Commonwealth.” Preston said looking through the robots. “I'm in too.”

“Same here I want to meet this Mechanist.” Codsworth said. 

Dogmeat only barked in response and joy.

“Well looks like we're all in. But I suggest that we have a knight before we continue.” Cobra said.

“Agreed.” Ada said. “You can use the camp, my friends would agree to it.”

“Thank you.” Cobra said before looking at Ashley who seemed to be in a daydreamed daze. 

He put his finger on her shoulder and gently pushed her. She fell to the floor without a care as she just stared at the stars with a big smile on her face. The others just looked at her with vacant expressions. 

“Err ok.” Danse muttered as he climbed out of his power armour. 

He stretched out before making it over to a sleeping bag and fell on it in a mix of exhaustion and his wounds from the previous day. 

“I'll take first watch.” Preston said with Cobra nodding as he picked up Ashley and lay her on one of the free sleeping bags. “Is she ok?”

“Of course she is.”Codsworth said as Dogmeat curled up next to his mistress. “Back before the bombs fell, well there was a word going around called nerd. It denoted people who rarely go out and read comics and play fantasy games. Sir told me that Miss Ashley used to go to these conventions with stars in her eyes. I believe the term is 'nerding out'.”

“So she's nerding out?” Cobra asked.

“I believe so sir. Now if you'll please excuse me while I power down.” the Mr handy said before landing softly and pulled his arms in. 

The moon shined down on the camp as the sword star Commander fell onto the only free sleeping bag and fell asleep. 

OOOOO

Looking at a terminal a shadowy figure looked at the information on their robots. Their eye twitched as they could see several robots who went to find that trader group who sold robot parts. All of them where down, which didn't seem possible. They had sent cybermechs, one of their more powerful robots to take them out. Their fist slammed onto the desk as clicking could be heard. 

“So someone is trying to stop me?” they said in a synthesized voice. “Let them try for I am the Mechanist!”


	6. Chapter 6 New Threat pt1

As the sun began to rise Preston could heard a clanging of metal followed by a loud 'shit'. He groaned as he began to wake, one of his eyes opened to see Ashley dragging one of the robots that they took out yesterday. Getting it into a area she liked she then picked up a toolbox and began to take the machine apart. He woke up fully and watched as the blue suited woman begin to take a protectron-like robot apart. 

“Come on.” she said as she began to take the machine apart. 

Preston watched as she removed the armour plates and moved into the machine itself. As she began to rummage in the machine she began to sing.

“Atom bomb baby, lil atom bomb..” she muttered as she worked. 

Unable to get to back sleep Preston got up and walked over to the 200 year old woman.

“What are you up to?” he asked. 

“Aside from taking apart this machine? Ada said that the robots have a tracking chip in them before she shut down for a recharge. That's what I'm trying to find at the moment.” she said not looking up.

Shrugging Preston just nodded as she walked back to his bed, picking up his rifle and walking over to a fireplace. Slideing his hand into his bag and pulling out a tin of pork'n'beans before bring up a knife and opened it. He then set it down next to the fire allowing it to warm up. Danse was the next up, after stretching out he climbed into his power armour. He then walked over to a sleeping Cobra who fell asleep during his shift, shaking his head he slapped the Sword star commander waking him up with a start. 

He looked up at the powered armoured solder with a twitch in the eye. 

“Do that again.” he said standing. “And meet my boot up your ass.”

The two stared at each other for a good long while, before moving off to the fireplace. The two gave each other very dirty looks as they waited for their food to be ready. Dogmeat was the next to wake, but ran off for a moment and came back a second later with a mole rat in his mouth and began to eat the poor mutated beast. Ash was still focusing on dissecting the robot in front of her taking it out piece by piece as Ada awoke.

“Ahh full energy, that's better.” she said before turning to the others. “How is everyone today.”

“Fine.” both Cobra and Danse said coldly not taking their eyes off each other. 

“I'm good.” Preston called out eating his breakfast.

Ashley didn't say anything as she looked in the machine. 

“Well since you all agreed to help me, there is something I can give you. Schematics for you to make your own robot workbench, so you have the additional resources for this undertaking.” Ada said making the Soul survivor look at the machine with wide eyes. 

“A robot work bench?” she said with joy. “Give, me, give me, give me.” she moved up to the robot who handed the plans to her and she opened it and looked at it. “Hohohoh.” she cried out in joy. 

“So you want revenge?” Preston asked.

“I admit my goal is twofold. Stopping the Mechanist both protects the Commonwealth and allows me to avenge my fallen friends. I won't rest until this threat is dissolved. I owe it to them. Now, we last saw a group of Mechanist robots at the General Atomic's factory. You may find information there about where we can find the Mechanist.” 

All eyes turned to Ashley who felt them on her turned and looked at the others. “What?” 

“Your the robotics expert.” Cobra said. “And you where alive before the bombs fell.”

“So?” she asked with a raised brow. “Just because I was around before the bombs fell doesn't mean that I know where everything was ok. I have no.....” she stopped for a moment before looking at her pip-boy. 

She'd forgot about the mapping feature that was on it. Turing to the map she looked at it, but cursed, it was just a simple map with icons of historical, popular sights and government structures. 

“Da... wait... Ada do you have a location of the place?”

“Yes I do, I just sent it to your pip-boy.” 

She checked again and there it was, a silhouetted icon. Turning on her foot, and looked passed the electronics building. 

“That way.”

“General atomics has valuable salvage. Chances are high the robots are still there.” 

“Agreed, Ok people let's get ready to move. And make sure to grab some bags, we're going to need all the salvage we can.”

Ashley was more or less ready as the others got up and began to move. She walked over to her work area and picked up her rifle and bulled the bolt back. Still loaded, but she knew that it wouldn't be enough to take out a building full of robots. Not to mention she had no armour piercing rounds, her hand reached to her laser pistol and pulled it out. She stole it, she stole it from the military armoury but no one cared, not one as there was a war to fight. After all no one notices if at least one weapon disappeared, now this one was her's. 

She overcharged the capacitor and focused the energy from the cell into the firing mechanism. This along with the improved barrel made it quite the deadly weapon, that only left the handle. That she took from a Chinese sniper rifle, it was quite comfortable to handle but she left the sights as they where as scopes and pistols weren't too good. One other modification was making sure was the drain on the cell and focusing it on the beam only giving it 12 shots per cell. If her rifle didn't work, then this would.

Sliding it back into her holster she walked over to one of the tents and picked up one of the rucksacks throwing it over her shoulder. She looked to the others who where ready. 

OOOOO

They made it to the place, they had a slight run-in with a Raider gang. Gaining some valuable salvage and ammo. Ashley picked up some armour and weapons which she packed and planned to break the down some time in the near future. When the word 'Future' came to mind it rolled around in her mind. Looking around more often then not, she began to think what kind of future what kind of future would she have out here? What was there out here? What kind of future was there? 

Even if she could find her son was he older? Dead? She rubbed her head trying to get the thoughts out of her head. Her maternal instincts wouldn't allow her to think like that. After this whole robot mess would be over she would find her son until she died. 'Hell has no fury but a woman scorn' that old English saying was what Nate used to say to his old drinking buddies. When she was more then pissed off she could have been a lioness or a demon. 

The team reached the building making stop thinking and go into combat mode. The team staked up against the sides door. They looked to one another before Ash nodded and brought up her rifle as Cobra opened the door. She was the first to enter with both eyes open as she entered and walked passed a desk. Looking to the side of her, windows seeing into the factory she could see the machines waiting for her and the others. One of them spotted her and moved though the door in front of her and fired lasers at her making her dive behind the desk she passed. 

The lasers hit around the door preventing the other's from entering. Popping up out of cover she then fired five rounds at the machine each one bounced off the armour forcing her to grab her laser pistol. Before she could grab it the machine fired at her but she dogged by spinning to the side while bringing out her pistol. Aiming it at the Mr Handy like machine she fired, the red lance of light hit the machine in the optics. The eye blew but it had two more to call upon. She fired again this time hitting the chassis sending it spinning. She fired once more at the fuel tank which melted and caused the machine to explode. 

It fell to the ground allowing the others to pour into the building. As they did Ashley moved up to the robot to see what she could salvage. On looking she could see the handle of a pistol in the robot itself. She reached in and took a hold of the weapon. Yanking it out she then looked at it, it was a .44 revolver with a bull barrel. Sliding the release catch the cylinder popped open and she could see it had the standard 6 rounds that most .44's had. She closed it and slid it into one of her back pouches. No spare ammo for it, for now. 

“Ahh been a long time since I seen a place like this.” Codsworth muttered. 

“There's something here.” Ada said. “A robot model that I've never detected before.”

“Well let's move,” Ashley said moving through the door where the Mr Handy came from. 

Since it as going to be close quarters Cobra and Preston both had their shotguns out. Cobra's one was modified to be automatic with a drum magazine. Preston on the other hand opted for single shot and a short magazine but with a long barrel. As their leader opened the door to the next room a laser blast hit her in the side sending her back and into cover. She recoiled in pain as Danse charged in tackling the robot to the ground and smashed it's processor killing it. As he did rounds began hitting his armour, deflecting off it and hitting the walls. 

One scratched his face making him take cover fast. Preston came cup next and fired a high powered shot from his musket. The laser blast hit it power cell causing it to explode. But still not dead the machine crawled up with what was left of his torso but didn't get far as Danse crushed the machine under his boot. After injecting herself with a stimpack Ashley then moved up next as a protectron/ handy mix came in fast. As it slashed out at her she rolled over it's back grabbing a few of it's wires and pulled it. The machine went haywire as it spun around making her duck, pulling out her pistol she fired. The laser melted some of the wiring inside it causing it to fall down dead. 

Smiling she spun her pistol around her finger before sliding it into the holster. Cobra came up as did the others and looked at the robot. Then at her pistol.

“What kind of weapon is that?” he asked. 

“One that I modified myself I call it Nova's light.” she replied. 

“Yes, yes very interesting, but we have a job to do here.” Danse said moving up passed them.

Ashley followed up up a fight of stairs and the others followed. At the other side of the room the Mechanist robots came charging in and fast. On of them pinned Danse to the wall next tot the stairs, Ashley took cover while Ada came in fast firing her laser arm but was hit on her arm survos causing her to fall. Cobra and Preston hung back, trying to get a look at the robots. The Sword star merc put a .308 round in his mouth as he pulled out his sniper rifle. Preston cranked his rifle as Cobra loaded the round in the rifle and took aim. The Minute-man also took aim as a heavily armed robot suppressed fire at them.

As they both took aim Danse threw off the robot who was on him making the armoured robot turn to him. Before he could fire the two mercs fired their rifles at it. The laser melted the armour allowing the bullet to hit the coolant system. The robot began to overheat and fast causing it to shut-down. While that happened Ashley ripped some of the wiring from the robot while Danse ripped it's optics off. As it fell Ashley turned to a door and just stared through it. 

“Ok that's new.” she said. 

The others turned to see a cylindrical robot with a glass dome for a head. The door was locked allowing them to look at it without any trouble. As they looked Ashley turned to Ada and took out some tools, she then opened the armour cap and looked. 

“What is that thing?” Cobra asked.

“It's a robobrain.” Ashley said as she worked. “I cannot remember which company build them, or where planning to build them but there was some major controversy with it.”

“Why?” Danse asked.

“That brain? That an ape brain.” she said with more then a hint of disgust. 

“Ape?” all three of them asked before Preston continued. “What's an ape?”

She turned to them with a bewilded look before slapping her head, hard. “Oh right, ugh. Ok so think of something like us but with a face pushed out, hands for feet and fur just about everywhere except for the face and chest.” she said turning back to Ada. “And that's just one group. But that was the reason, animal activists didn't want people to use apes brains as computers or human for that matter. Despite the advancement's we made, the brain is the only supercomputer system that we cannot duplicate.”

As soon as she finished talking she put her tools away.

“Ok try and move.”

Ada then stood and moved her arm. “Thank you.” 

She then stood and looked at the machine through the glass. It was trapped and there was a terminal next to the door. They looked to each other and just reloaded their weapons. Walking up to the terminal the others readied their weapons, taking a deep breath she activated the terminal and began to hack. Each one of them was calm and collected, each one was a soldier in their own right. Not a sweat dropped as Ashley hacked the terminal. Just then the doors opened, as it did all of them fired at the machine, no emotion just action. And explosion sounded making them all stop. 

They moved up slowly breathing slowly. Convinced it was dead thy all took a relaxed sigh. Ashley moved up and began too look inside the machine. She found something out of place, it looked like a chip of some kind. 

“Did you retrieve something from that robot?” Ada asked.

Ashley stood as she looked at the device. “It had this device on it.” 

“Let's have a look.” Ash passed the device to Ada who then began to scan it. “Impressive technology. If my analysis is correct, this is a specialised radar beacon. I suspect it's how the Mechanist is keeping track of the robobrain that we destroyed. As the next logical step, I need you to install this beacon within me so we can use it to our advantage.” 

“Sounds like a sold plan.” Ash said.

“Wait.” Danse said making the two look at them. “Is it safe?”

“Yeah, all it is, is a tracking beacon. If your wondering if the Mechanist can take over or track us, I can write a program into Ada preventing that.” 

“Agreed. You need to use a robot workbench to ensure proper installation.”

“Ok then, grab what salvage we can and let's head back to sanctuary.”

OOOOO a day later. (In the interest of time)

The graveyard was up ahead, as was the Robobrain robot. Ashley was lagging behind from the wound she suffered from that tankbot they faced earlier. Upon reaching the grave Danse and Cobra jumped down and engaged both feral ghouls and robots. Preston took a stop up next to a tree sniping with his laser musket. Codsworth and Ada jumped in with the blue assultron keeping back. When Ashley got to the drop she watched as her friends attack the robots and ghouls, but she recognised this place, the grave stones. 

Fear, anger, hate began to fill her. She began to shake uncontrollably as tears fell from her eyes as she looked on. Preston looked at just standing there, no reason why she should just be standing. But being a sharp shooter, even he noticed her shaking. Something was up whit her.

“Ashley!” he yelled. “You ok?” 

“YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!” a woman yell in her ears followed . “I regret not having that abortion.”

Inside her something snapped and she dropped her rifle, reaching down she picked up her pistol. And jumped down. Preston just watched as a ghoul approached her but she just shot it in the head. It fall making the other's turn to her. She kept on firing making them drop one by one until she ran out. Dropping the weapon she looked up and used the blade under her pip-boy and cut the head of one of the beasts. Spinning in the air she cut two more heads in half. Next came up a hovering robot who charged at her. 

But as soon as it came in she grabbed it by the arm spun and slammed it into a tree causing it to fall. It was about to come back up, but before it could she slashed at the wires and chassis making it whine. The robobrain knocked Danse over and hit Cobra in the gut before turning to Ashley. It moved speed but she moved fas around it and jumped on it before ripping the brain dome off it's torso. She then there it to the floor before bringing a boot to it crushing it. Cobra then got up and walked over to her. 

“Hey go...” before he could finish she spun and punched him in gut, hard. 

He fell onto all fours before being kicked onto his back. Her arm was raised ready to strike but Preston jumped her. The blade cut Cobra's leg making him yell. The rolled a few feet before getting up. 

“Ash stop!” Preston yelled. 

“Oh no.” Codsworth said. “MR DANSE RESTRAIN HER!” 

Danse looked from the robot to Ash who jumped Preston. Gritting his teeth he dropped his rifle and grabbed her by the waist. She thrashed about violently before Preston jumped up and injected her with something. Slowing down her thrashing she stopped and fell asleep. Ada came up and looked down at her. Cobra got up and pulled a sleeping bag off her back. Preston took it from her an lay her on the sleeping bag. Preston dabbed a wet cloth on her forehead slowly sighing as he did.

“I don't believe what she just did.” Cobra said as he wrapped the cut on his leg. “I mean I know she's tough but that... is she some kind of super mutant?” 

“Unfortunately not.” Codsworth spoke up. “I think it's time you tell you all.” he said grabbing everyone's attention.

“Tell us what?” Danse asked. 

“Why she went, well nuts.” he said for lack of a better word. “I learned about this from Sir before he died, he told me if something like this was to happen then I needed to put her to sleep. You see Ashley wasn't close to her father as he was a drunk. But she did look up to him, when he died it hit her hard, very hard so much so that she attacked the gang that killed him.”

“Ok wait.” Preston said. “Now I want to hear the rest but correct me if I'm wrong but didn't back then had a law enforcement group? If so... did she spend time in prison?” 

“No, but she did cause damage to the gang.”

“Define damage.” Cobra said. 

“Broken ribs, castration, broken back and skull. In total she deserved at least a few years in prison but that didn't happen. You see the local police knew her, and her dad quite well and since the gang caused the death of her father. But this is where is gets a little complicated you see Ashley's mother according to her word's was the 'Bitch queen from hell'. She, well abused Ashley and her father, it affected her quite badly making her react in a serious aggressiveness. From what sir said, it happened during the Anchorage liberation. When a mix of fear and anger inside her reaches a point, well....” Codsworth tailed off with the other's knowing what he was saying. 

“But why did it happen now?” Ada asked. 

“I think I know.” Danse said making everyone look to him. 

Danse stood in front of a grave stone with the words 'Here lay's Jim Winter Beloved father and hero.' That last name clicked with all of them and looked to Ashley.

“She was trying to protect her father's grave.” Preston said. 

“Of course!” Codsworth said out loud. “Every day when her father's birthday or when he died she go and visit without fail. And today...s.... oh right.....” His eye hung in the air. “29th October.... the day he died.”

The was an awkward silence in the air. They hardly knew her, but then again they hardly knew each other. The difference was that when they reach a point they didn't try to kill each other. 

“Ok so what do we do?” Cobra asked. “I mean we're low on medical supplies and hell we don't even have a medic.” 

Preston nodded before looking up. “What about Vault 81?” he asked. “Back when the Minute-men where, well bigger, Vault 81 was the perfect place for medical supplies. If we can get her then...”

“We can get her back up to peak physical form before heading to the final place where the robobrain is.” Ada said. 

“Ok, me and Cobra will carry her. Danse your the point man, Ada, behind him Codswoth your taking the rear.”

“Whoa now listen, I don't mind taking orders from her. But I WILL not take orders form a merc.”

“I.” Preston said slowly while standing and facing Danse. “Am not a MERC!” 

“GUYS!” Cobra yelled getting their attention. “We don't have time for this, Danse I know how much you hate taking orders from a merc. But right now I don't see any choice in the matter. Now if we make it to the Vault then you can leave but right now we are playing with her life.”

Danse was about to say something but the sound of lasers firing met their ears. All of them grabbed their weapons standing ready they kept an eye open for any sign of the attackers. The sound lasted for a good five minutes before it stopped, looking from one to the other Cobra limped forward followed by Danse and Ada. The three moved up and over a nearby hill. A small wooded area came into sight along with several dead Raiders. The two humans looked to each other before moving up and looking at the bodies. 

“Laser fire.” Danse said looking at one of them.

Cobra looked at the carefully before an idea came to mind. “Danse,” he said limping over to the Brotherhood soldier. “Shoot at that one.” pointing to one of the bodies.

“Why?”

“Just humour me ok, I think I may have something.” 

He shook his head before firing at the body leaving a laser mark on it. Cobra moved up and got down to one knee and looked at the two wounds. The one that Danse fired was big but without heavy burns the other one however was smaller but was deeper with very heavy burns. He had seen this before.

“I don't believe this.” he said standing. “I do not believe this.”

“What?” 

“These wound's, Institute rifle's.” he looked around. “I think their following us.”

“What? Why?” 

“I have an idea, but we'll find out later. Come on, let's get Ash to the Vault.”

OOOOO

Moving through the streets slowly Cobra limped slowly forward with Ada who was behind him. No stimpacks mean that he couldn't heal his major leg wound. The cave came into sight with construction vehicles around the entrance it as a good half a mile out. He moved up the road with the others following close by with Ashley on a stretcher. Keeping their eyes open in case of attack, since Cobra and Preston knew the area well they could moved around the more hostile area's. But still that meant the animals had their go at them. 

Moving up the street they passed a diner and up another good half a mile before reaching a cave where several construction vehicles where. The two mercs moved up through the fence before indicating to the others to move up. The rest of the group came up fast and the three entered the cave. Preston took point as Cobra took over from Dnase holding the stretcher. Moving through the cave they came to a large metal cog door with the number 81 in front of a yellow background. Preston moved up to a yellow terminal and press the comm. 

“Hold it right there, Vault 81 security, identify yourself.” the voice said.

“Preston Garvy, we need medical help.”

There was no sound for a good moment before the voice came back. “Ok we're opening the door, keep your hands and arm's where we can see them.”

The group moved over to the door as it began to open. As the group entered they covered their eyes as the floodlights blinded them. Preston came in first with his hands up and musket in one of them. When floodlight's stopped blinded him he could see several armoured Vault security standing around. Three of them held assault rifles while the rest had 10mm smgs and 10mm pistols. One in the light someone called for them to lower their weapons as the others came down as they did three doctors came up and looked at Ashley, one of the doctors opened up her jumpsuit placed his stethoscope on her chest. A woman with a dark reddish hair came up and looked at Ashley. 

“Is she ok?” she asked.

“Yeah, she fine.” the doctor said before turning to the squad.

“Waht happened to her?” he asked.

“Way to much anger and stress, pumped up inside her.” Cobra said.

The doctor nodded and looked down at the sole survivor. “Probably a large amount of adrenalin pumping through her body, mix with some rad's. Ok let's get her to the clinic, Rachel take care of our friends leg if you'll please.” he said as they took the woman on the stretcher to the lift. 

The doctor nodded and moved over to the black armoured soldier and helped him to a chair. Meanwhile the red head walked over to Preston and slapped him across the face. The security where ready for a reaction but he did nothing. But the squad looked on with surprise. 

“I guess I deserved that.” he said. 

“Damn right you do.” she said. “Now, explain what happened.”

“About what?” Preston asked.

“About the girl.”

“Well, it's a long story.” the look the Overseer gave him told him that she didn't give a damn. “Ok, she from another Vault, Vault 111.”

“I can see that. Explains the outfit, but why is she here?”

“She's looking for her son, she was taken by someone.”

“I'm surprised a Vault security failed.”

“There was no security, I went to the Vault myself to get supplies, there was no one there. And the ones that were, were dead. But that's not the main thing, she 200 years old, when they opened the Vault, they put her, her son and husband in cryo.”

She just stared at him. “You mean, that the woman we have in the clinic was in cryo since the bombs fell?” 

“Yeah, saw the pods myself.”

“Same here.” Cobra called out. 

“Wow.” she muttered rubbing her head. “First rouge robots, now a 200 year old woman looking for her son? What's next?” 

“Dunno, but we need to get her onto fighting form as soon as possible. Those robot's are tearing everything apart.”

She nodded at that and looked at him. “We'll do what we can, but you owe me big time for this.” she then walked off. 

“Old flame?” Codsworth asked.

“Yep.”


End file.
